Government mills built in area without electricity remain idle

Kalungu. The residents of Kabale-Kibisi Village, Lwabenge Sub-County in Kalungu District, are stuck with a non-functional maize mill commissioned by the government and some donors four years ago.

The mill was constructed using funding from African Development Bank (ADB), Government of Uganda and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), under Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Programme (CAIIP).

The maize mill, which cost about Shs500m, was constructed in an area without electricity. It is located about three miles from where the national power transmission line stops.
According to residents, the district authorities had earlier promised that electricity would be extended to the area to enable the machine operate which has never been implemented to date.
Former Kalungu Woman MP Florence Kintu commissioned the maize mill in November 2014.
“They [district leaders] told us that electricity was to be extended to the area soon, something that has never happened,” Ms Jane Kiggundu, one of the residents said during an interview on Wednesday.
She said they rejected the decision by the district authorities to run the mill using a diesel generator instead of electricity, and it has remained abandoned.

Donation
Mr Peter Male, a resident of Kabale–Kibisi Village, who donated a 50 by 60 feet piece of land where the agro processing facility was established, says he hoped to benefit a lot if electricity was extended to the village.
Kabale–Kibisi Village chairperson Francis Kigongo said they were surprised to learn that the mill was to be powered by a generator instead of electricity.
“What residents did is to shun the mill, saying they cannot eat porridge or posho from flour processed by a mill which uses diesel,” he added.
The Kalungu District chairperson, Mr Richard Kyabaggu, said they have asked Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to help extend electricity to the area so that people can start using the mill.
“The problem is with the central government, sometimes they do not engage local leaders when proposing such projects, that is why many are put in places where they cannot be utilised,” he said.
Mr Kyabaggu cited another maize mill in Bukulula Sub-County which has also remained idle for years because of lack of electricity .
“Since such programmes are coordinated from the centre, it’s hard for us as local leaders to follow up on these projects. We ask government to centralise CAIPP projects so that the district can own them if they are to be successful,” he said.
Mr Kyabaggu further said they are optimistic that by the end of the year a powerline to Lwabenge Sub-county would be complete and the maize mill will start operating.

Limited services

Kalungu District, which was carved out of Masaka District in 2010, has a population of 183,232 people and majority of these still face a challenge of limited access to basic amenities like running water and electricity.
According to 2014 National Housing and Population Census, only 8,188 households in the district have access to electricity, while 25,765 households (62.2 per cent) use tin lamps locally known as tadoobas for lighting in their homes. Only 5,672 households have access to piped water.