The acting Chief Justice Alfonso Owiny-Dollo has interdicted Deputy Registrar execution and bailiffs division of High Court, Deo Nzeyimana for producing poor standard of work and conducting himself in a manner that is prejudicial to the image, dignity and reputation of the service centrally to section 23 (a) of the judicial service regulation.

His interdiction arises from he issued an ex parte garnishee order absolute in miscellaneous cause no. 1031 of 2020 arising out of Emma no. 1038 of 2019, Arising from ARB cause no. 14 of 2019, Arising from CAD/ARB No. 23 of 2019 of Total Uganda limited Versus A.O Basid Ltd he issued when he had issued an interim order of stay of execution in the same matter on 28th October 2019.

He also accused him of issuing an ex parte garnishee order absolute in miscellaneous cause no. 1031 of 2020 arising out of Emma no. 1038 of 2019, Arising from ARB cause no. 14 of 2019, Arising from CAD/ARB No. 23 of 2019 of Total Uganda limited Versus A.O Basid Ltd in defiance of chief justice’s directives suspending execution proceedings in line with the national directives to curb the spread of Covid-19.

In a letter written by the Acting Chief Registrar Tom Chemutai, the acting chief justice contends that the registrar issued an ex parte without the knowledge of respondent and issued garnishee orders absolute in the same case.

“Therefore in accordance with regulation 25 (1) of Judicial service commission regulation, 2005, I am interdicting you and forwarding you to the judicial service commission for disciplinary action,” reads in part of interdicting letter

“You are directed to handover with immediate effect, any government property and court files to the registrar of high court in accordance with section f-d of the public standing orders.” The acting chief justice said

Dollo ordered that during of the interdiction, Nzeyimana will receive half pay of his monthly salary and restricted from leaving the country without permission from the chief registrar.

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Staff at Ndejje Secondary School have become a victim of the current Covid-19 pandemic after the school suspended their salaries and allowances, a decision taken due to lack of money to meet these financial obligations.

In a June 25 internal memo to all staff, the school Head teacher, Dr. Charles Kahingiriza said the board of Governor instructed the school management to suspend indefinitely payment of all salaries and allowances of all staff of the school.

“The source of funds of the school is school fees. Therefore, without students in school, there is no money to take care of financial obligations. Thus all employment contracts are hereby suspected with effect from July 1” reads in part the internal memo.

The Head teacher said that however, despite all this, the staff continue to benefit from the medical insurance and rent contribution paid to the landlord by the school. It has also committed itself to pay 50% of the June salary as the last payment prior to the suspension of all payments contracts.

He further notes that all the staff are required to sign a commitment sheet to be picked from the Secretary to the head teacher before the payment of the June salary. In case, not later than 29 June.

The head teacher explains that it will be reactivated once schools are reopened and therefore, the school is able to meet its functional obligations.

In April, the sister school, Ndejje University suspended staff payments and advised them to use the money they had with caution because it could be what they were left with until the university opened.

The university cleared salaries for March since the university was closed following a presidential directive on coronavirus measures on March 20.

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The Managing Director of Umeme, Mr Selestino Babungi has unveiled Shs 310 billion capital expenditure plan and vowed to strategically continue investing in support of the government agenda of increasing population’s access to electricity.
Unveiling the investment plans for 2020, Selestino said the power company would, including the USD83.3 million, invest altogether up to USD450m (UGX1.7 trillion) between 2019 and 2025 investment agenda, in support of Uganda’ major energy objectives- increasing grid connections, increasing demand, reliability of supply and driving efficiencies.

“In 2020, Umeme, secured approval from the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) and has gone ahead to allocate USD83.3 million to six critical areas of the business, which when completed, will see us reliably connect over 300,000 customers this year alone,” Babungi said
He noted that, their sixth strategic areas will shift to addressing energy losses and improve operational efficiency (USD 26.89 million),  addressing load demand growth (USD22.72 million), power supply reliability (USD18.89 million), power generation evacuation and supply (USD10.79 million), network systems automation (USD1.93 million) and network protection and security (USD2.06 million).”

Babungi said that in light of the government’s bold energy agenda Umeme had increased its investment by 7.2% this year, much closer to the 9.1% growth in demand. Umeme last year invested UGX289 billion and UGX230 billion in 2018. Altogether, Umeme has to date invested over $650 million since it started running the energy distribution concession in 2005, adding 1,210,000 customers.
The number of customers has crossed the 1,500,000 mark, up from the 290,000 the company inherited. Energy losses have also been more than halved from 39.8% in March 2005 to 16.4% as of 2019 at the end of 2019.

In 2019 Umeme connected 180,000 new customers, out of whom, 178,152 were financed by the Government and development partners under the Electricity Connections Policy.]
As at the end of December 2019, Uganda had 528.9 MW of surplus power supply, the country’s peak system demand was 723.76 MW versus installed generation capacity of 1,252MW. When Karuma Hydropower Dam which is at 98% stage of completion is finally inaugurated, peak excess could as well reach 1,000MW.
With significant generation ability, Uganda needs an equally significant investment into the last-mile connection, getting power to where it is needed most with huge focus placed on households, factories and schools.
“With the new capital investments we expect to boost our new customer connections to about 250,000- 300,000 per year,” he said, adding: “We are also investing in leveraging technology and business process improvements to reduce power losses and continue delivering more reliable power affordably,” he said.
“Everymoney saved in energy losses, our customers benefit directly by way of reduced cost of electricity,” Babungi said.

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