You clear all your bill, but the next day (UMEME) send for you a demand note for payment. How, For what? Life has become very difficult for retired civil servants in the country as their electricity power are being disconnected.
GULU-UGANDA: Luke Orach 76 years old father of 9 children and many grandchildren who is a former officer of the Uganda Police lives in sorrow following repeated disconnections from UMEME.
UMEME is Uganda`s main power distribution Company from South Africa.
Orach is crying foul and accuses UMEME of doubly billing his power usage since 2015.
He complains that he have been receiving two account numbers from the electricity distributors making him suffer monetary loses of about a million shillings annually.
A copy of payment receipt referenced 202541219 showed that Mr. Orach made payment of UGX 140,000 to the company on February 2nd 2019 for power usage however a week later he again received a text message from UMEME notifying him to pay UGX 20,000 or else he risks being disconnected.
Orach misery intensified when he complained to UMEME`s front desk in Gulu Town over the mishap because immediately he left he again received another bill of UGX 138,000.
“My problem is that I have to make double payments to have power, this fraud has been going on for three years, in a month I have to pay UGX 150,000, and the least I can pay is UGX 75, 000. When you complain to the management, the authority gives you no answer.” Orach wondered.
Okello Lakwo who is a resident of Layibi Division in an outskirt of Gulu Town said he have been forced to using solar light since UMEME has caused him uncounted financial loss for over ten years.
“Those people think when you are a retired civil servant, you are an old aged person who can easily be defrauded!!!” Lakwo wondered.
Mr. Lakwo explains that UMEME refused to reconnect his power after he demanded that they install for him a power grid called Yaka.
Yaka is a prepaid electricity from UMEME which allows you to control your power consumption.
40 years old Helen Ajok who is mother of 6 living in Pece Division, another outskirt of Gulu town has no kind words too.
She says in the past regime Ugandans enjoyed power consumption in the previous government when power was controlled and distributed by Uganda Electricity Board (UEB) which was under Uganda Development Cooperation (UDC).
She praised UEB for being lenient to customers and never defrauded customers as it is now. To Ajok, what is happening with UMEME is ‘’robbery in broad day light’’.
Ajok formerly lived in Nakawa housing estate in Uganda`s capital Kampala. She remembers that UEB never harassed customers.
Morgan Omar, UMEME`s front desk manager at Gulu/Northern Region main office however strongly denied the allegations saying that they have never defrauded their customers in anyway.
He however consents to the public outcry of the company issuing bills to separate accounts but for one client but said this has never affected payments unless otherwise.
On the messages, Morgan insists that the company is moving away from paper invoices to digital means such as phone messages, and emails.
Explaining the account for Orach, he said that is what is used to bill him monthly.
Oyeng Yeng Publication underground report from its investigation indicate that most complaints against UMEME are from customers using electricity for domestic uses only.
It now wonders how much customers using power for commercial purposes are being affected.
In December 2018, members of Northern Uganda Media Club-NUMEC demonstrated against UMEME due to recurring power blackout in Gulu which sometimes goes on for weeks.
