Kayunga teacher electrocuted 

The teaching fraternity in Kayunga District is mourning one of their own who was electrocuted after he allegedly made an illegal power connection to the transmission pole.

Kayunga District Police Commander, Rosette Sikahwa identified the deceased as Charles Kakonge, 58, who has been a Physics and Mathematics teacher at Namagabi SS in Kayunga Town. He was also a part time teacher in several secondary schools in the district.

Kakonge died at around 6:30am on Saturday as he tried to remove from the transmission pole the wires he had been using to make an illegal connection to his house.

"He has been using a long dry stick to loop and also remove the wires. But this time when he was removing the wires, he was electrocuted," his grief-stricken widow, Annet Namudu said.
Unidentified neighbor of the deceased said Kakonge was stealing the power by looping the wires on the electricity service wires every evening and removing them early in the morning in order to avoid being caught by Umeme staff.

"It seems he was electrocuted because the pole he was using to remove the wires was wet. He was barefooted at the time," the neighbor who asked not to be named in order to speak freely said.
Ms Sikahwa said Umeme staff visited the scene and warned residents against engaging in power theft.

The body was later taken to Kayunga regional referral hospital for postmortem as investigations into the incident continues.
Despite the dangers and risks associated with stealing electricity using illegal connections, many Ugandans continue to connect to the power grid without paying for the electricity, bypassing the meter and creating a direct connection to the grid. This is partly because the cost of power in the country is too high for some people.