Barely a year after Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) took over the national distribution network from Umeme on 1 April 2025, the original leadership under Managing Director Paul Mwesigwa had posted measurable gains in customer connections, revenue, demand absorption, and targeted network interventions. That team was then abruptly sidelined in May 2026, with key technical and operational managers later terminated, and replaced in large part by former Umeme staff — including the current Acting Managing Director. Parliament’s Natural Resources Committee is now confronting the new leadership over what MPs describe as worsening darkness, slow absorption of available funds, and unsatisfactory explanations.
Under Mwesigwa’s stewardship in the first year, UEDCL reported UGX 1.71 trillion in revenue by February 2026, a customer base that grew to roughly 2.4–2.7 million, and more than 236,000 new connections (with earlier six-month figures cited as high as 648,000 in some official briefings). Peak domestic demand rose about 20% from 986 MW in April 2025 to 1,188 MW by February 2026. Energy losses, which had stood near 19% at the start of the transition in some accounts, were brought down toward 16.8% in the first half-year according to company and media reports. The utility secured a USD 50 million Absa Bank facility (the first such direct government-agency borrowing of its kind for investment) and rolled out a USD 994 million five-year investment master plan covering 2026–2030.
On the network itself, the first team conducted transformer relocations that doubled capacity at several overloaded substations (including Kampala South, Masaka Central, Kakiri and others), benefiting an estimated 138,000 consumers, plus 18 targeted feeder and protection upgrades (auto-reclosers, circuit breakers) across sites such as Bombo, Kajjansi, Mutundwe, Kapeeka, Jinja Industrial and others, reaching over 66,000 customers. ICT systems were decoupled from Umeme, staffing reached near-full establishment, and major procurements for transformers, meters and materials were advanced. Company messaging at the one-year mark framed the period as one of stabilisation — “keeping the lights on while we fix inherited network weaknesses” — ahead of heavier capital works.
In early May 2026 the Ministry of Energy terminated Board Chair Lydia Ochieng-Obbo and placed Mwesigwa on forced leave, citing a review of management and operations. Seven senior managers widely viewed as aligned with the previous leadership — including Chief Engineering and Technical Services Officer Protaze Tibyakinura, heads of internal audit, HR, corporate affairs and technology — were placed on leave and later had their contracts terminated. An internal memo soon installed acting officers in key posts, with a significant number drawn from Umeme’s former ranks. Eng. Joselynne R. Rwakakoko (previously customer service engineering manager and head of network operations at Umeme) became Acting MD. Other acting appointments included Eng. Sylver Hategekimana (former head of network assets development at Umeme) in engineering/technical, Isaac Katewanga in commercial, and others in HR, corporate affairs and audit. Media analyses noted that nearly half of the top management layer, and over 60% of broader staff, now have Umeme backgrounds. UEDCL had earlier absorbed the large majority of Umeme personnel for continuity.
The contrast with the current parliamentary hearing is stark. On 15–16 October 2026 the Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Dan Kimosho (Kazo County), grilled electricity sector officials including UEDCL’s present leadership. MPs reported increased loadshedding since the Umeme exit, citing ageing and overloaded transformers, poorly serviced substations, vandalism, and reduced investment in Umeme’s final years. Specific complaints included multi-day weekly outages in Buliisa’s Biso town council, fortnightly darkness in Kazo, and villages in Busiro North still without reliable access. Kimosho told officials he was “very angry,” particularly at the regulator, and accused the sector of gaslighting Ugandans “choking on darkness.” Moses Mayanja (Busiro North) and others demanded the purging of ex-Umeme staff to eliminate alleged sabotage and “kawukumi.”
Committee members questioned why only a fraction of available capital (reportedly ~USD 1.5 million of more than USD 170 million from government allocations and the Absa facility) had been utilised, with UEDCL citing BuBu local-sourcing constraints. ERA representatives faced accusations of earlier under-investment, untruthful claims about equipment sufficiency, and regulatory delays.
Current UEDCL communications continue to announce transformer upgrades (including at Kawanda), feeder splits, pole replacements and substation works intended to ease Greater Kampala constraints and support a longer-term reliability target. Demand continues to grow faster than the inherited network can comfortably absorb, and vandalism remains a documented problem. Yet the timing of the leadership purge — coming after a year of reported revenue growth, connection expansion and targeted technical interventions, and followed by a leadership layer heavily drawn from the previous private operator — has fuelled public and parliamentary suspicion that institutional knowledge transfer has shaded into continuity of problems, or worse.
Watchdog Uganda’s earlier June 2026 coverage already flagged the termination of the seven managers as carrying risks of costly litigation and appearing targeted at perceived loyalists rather than grounded in exhaustive transparent audits. The October parliamentary exchanges show that frustration has not abated. The core public question remains whether the original post-Umeme UEDCL team was removed while it was still demonstrating capacity to stabilise and expand the system, and whether the replacement structure — dominated by former Umeme personnel — has delivered the improvement Ugandans were promised when the concession ended.
The post SPECIAL REPORT: Former UEDCL Team Was Stabilising the Grid Before Abrupt Purge — Now Replaced by Ex-Umeme Executives as Loadshedding Intensifies appeared first on Watchdog Uganda.