By David Birungi
In a few days, the last man standing at Umeme will flip the 240 volts switch and move on to the next lit room in UEDCL. Congratulations to that man or woman for that opportunity that will likely elude nearly 200 others. The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa has indicated that UEDCL has absorbed 2068 (91.6%) Umeme workers, and only 191 or 8.4% risk being redundant.
Globally, Utilities form part of the top 3 industries with the lowest staff turnover because of the specialized nature of their work. Their work revolves around engineering itself, the complexity of commercial models and the regulatory obligations that govern those models. It is a complex set up compounded by the politics of the country.
The last person standing at Umeme to flip that switch will also appreciate the politics of self-determination. Uganda determined the 1999 Energy sector reforms when he or she, now a worker of interest, was shedding their milk teeth. Those reforms have delivered wonderful public (even private goods) and the same Uganda has ended those reforms. Uganda has determined.
Whichever category you fall, I would like to take a moment and reflect on the contribution you made to Uganda for which you will probably not get a bonus cheque but should be journalized in your memoirs.
Public Safety. Our national road safety is appalling but our national grid safety should be celebrated because you cared. There was no toll-free emergency line 23 years ago. Uganda Posts and Telecommunications had been annihilated with no working village phone at the few parishes that had electricity. There was simply no way of reporting emergencies. Mothers lost their children to electrocutions. You educated flooded communities, schools and churches about public safety. If you build on that, we may entrust you with the Uranium reactor planned in Buyende District.
You improved our discipline of debt management. The fellows you used to disconnect for non-payment are in FinTech saying “Don’t pay on the yellow line, put on the red one. I haven’t paid”. In other jurisdictions, if you do not have the discipline to pay your utility bills, you do not get on public buses or trains. You also can’t borrow from a bank. The Yaka System reformed power relations at home too.
You kept the lights ON. The industry closest to your work remains an Airline because hundreds of planes land safely every minute and it shouldn’t make the news. As you wind up, UETCL, UEGCL, in separate glamourous public events, announced that they had made profits.
Equipping youth with financial literacy skills through S-WalletThey could only have done so because you ignored the politics around your work and kept the lights on powering opportunities for Uganda. You deserve a pat on your back even if it were to come from the back of only your hands. We will forever be indebted to you. During the Covid-19 lockdown, many Kampala housewives learned how to bake cake because you risked your lungs to keep the ovens working.
You innovated. There are two subtle cursory ways to estimate the rule of law in any country, the level of power theft and the respect of traffic rules. There is no prize for guessing how we perform on the latter. You smoked some weed and outed some of the best interventions against power theft that got Meter manufacturers flocking Kampala to embed these in their manufacturing designs. The first prepaid system for medium voltage in Africa was designed by you and exported to the world. It remains installed on government premises like police and prisons. Will they keep it?
Lastly, you grew professionally. The Umeme concession began when Telecom Engineering was at its peak. This starved Electrical engineering of a good flow of talent. You refined yourselves, you learned, you unlearned and soldiered on. You worked within millimeters of deadly 33,000 volts. I know you hid this fact from your closest loved ones.
The younger ones who joined along the way started with wobbly hands that couldn’t tighten a bimetal lug or clean up a Microsoft Excel pivot table. Look at yourselves now. You are Subject Matter Experts in your chosen fields.
I hope on the morning of 2nd April, not 1st April ( it’s fools day), you will gather your loved ones over a meal and proudly tell them you built this republic with integrity. When you do, tell them Umeme was NSSF’s Cash cow, and that Social Security is not what NSSF pays us when we retire but the quality of society we retire to.
The author is a Public Relations Manager at Airtel Uganda.