Kadaga Orders REA on Musoke’s Buikwe North

By Brian Musasizi

The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga has directed the Rural
Electrification Agency (REA) on the extension of electricity in 18
villages of Buikwe North, the new Njeru Municipality.

Despite several reminders from the speaker following a petition by the area Member of Parliament Capt. Paul Musoke Ssebulime previously in
2016, REA which is mandated to providing electricity to rural communities had delayed to implement the program for unknown reasons which prompted the former to issue a new directive.

In her letter addressed to the Executive Director of Rural
Electrification Agency, the speaker of Parliament directed ERA to
extend electricity to the villages and health centers.

‘’I write to forward requests from various communities for connection of electricity to their areas in Buikwe District. I would appreciate it if you could facilitate the request to implement the government commitment to supply electricity to rural areas’’, reads in part Kadaga’s letter.

According to Paul Musoke the area member of parliament, the villages
are ; Butema , Namabeere , Ssese, Kiryowa III,Bulamba , Kiryowa Central, Nakakumbi , Bulungu and other Bukabala.

Other villages include; Wantumbi Cell, Kikondo, Bukamunye ‘B’
cell, Mubeeya, Nanso, Bugoba, Ssunga , Ntinda, and Bbanga all located
in Njeru Municipality.

The speaker also asked REA to supply electrify to health centers,
schools and worship centers to cub insecurity in the area.

Musoke said the area is frustrated with the delay of power extension.
He told Red pepper that several revenue-generating programs were set
up with the hope that the villages would have electricity at the
beginning 2016 following his earlier petitions and subsequent
directives from the speaker of parliament which proved futility.

 Buikwe North which comprises of three divisions; Njeru, Wakisi and
Nyenga is home to several factories. It is hoped that electricity will boost production and save the small scale producers and factories of millions of shillings spent on running diesel generators every day.

Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is a semi-autonomous body established by an Act of Parliament, to operationalize the Government’s rural electrification function. REA is mandated to implement a number
of projects including Grid extension, Independent Grids, and off-grid