Residents block power line project over compensation

More than 1,600 residents of Karenga Village in Narengemoru Parish, Ngoleriet Sub-county in Napak District have blocked employees of the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) from erecting a power transmission line in their area, claiming that they have not been fully compensated.
Government is constructing a 132MW high voltage power line from Opuyo sub-station in Soroti to Moroto District in a bid to promote industrialisation. Faragostarbisteoon FGB, an Iranian company, was contracted to construct the power line in last year and commenced work early this year.
However, the residents on Sunday said while the undertaking is worthwhile, work can only commence once they are duly compensated.
Mr John Logit, one of the affected persons, said the list of those to be compensated was tampered with and bears names of non-residents.
“We are the genuine owners of land where the power line is to be constructed but we have not been registered for compensation and the people that UETCL has registered are not residents of our area,” he said.
Mr Samuel Lote, the village chairperson, said the UETCL team did not verify the true land owners.
“They used people from other districts to identify land owners to be compensated and they have messed up the whole process and we shall not accept,” he said.
Ms Sarah Nakiru, another affected resident, said they can relocate to other places to pave way for the power project if they are given due compensation.
Mr Peter Lokwang, the sub-county chairperson, said: “UETCL ignored our advice as the sub-county authority because as a chairman, I tried to engage them to use the local people to identify the rightful owners of land for compensation but they seemed to have ignored us.”
He said they even reported the matter to the Commission of Inquiry into land matters when she visited Karamoja last week. Mr Jimmy Tebenyang, the sub-county councillor, said there is no way UETCL can pay people who are not the rightful owners of the land.
“We need proper registration of the people to be compensated because the list that UETCL generated has some errors,” he said.
However, Mr Pius Okiror from UETCL said the list that they have was generated by the village chairpersons, Gombolola Intelligence Security Officers and sub-county chairpersons in the area.
“UETCL does not generate the list of the affected people but it is the leaders who generate and sign it before handing over it to the consultancy who later hand it over to UETCL, so it is the leaders to be blamed for the mess,” he said.
Nevertheless, Mr Okiror said UETCL will engage the residents to resolve the matter.

About power line

Length. The power line begins from the Tororo sub-station in Tororo District. The line travels through Mbale, to the high voltage substation at Opuyo in Soroti District. From there, it goes through Dokolo District and ends in Lira District, which a total distance of about 264 kilometres. Prior to 2013, the power line was primarily constructed of wooden poles, which were vulnerable to lightning, wild fires and termite damage. In 2013, the government, using money borrowed from the African Development Bank, began replacing the wooden poles with metal structures.