In a new agreement, Uganda agreed to refund 50 Megawatts of power to Kenya’s grid following the decision by Nairobi to save the neighbouring country from a power blackout that was occasioned by the shut down of Isimba dam.
Initially, Uganda entered into a deal to purchase the 60 Megawatts from Kenya.
After the agreement, Kenya released the 60MW to Uganda but some of the turbines at Isimba Dam were resuscitated after the Museveni-led country received about 40MW.
“The government this week plans to export 50 Megawatts (MW) to Kenya as payment in kind for the power acquired last week to plug the gap occasioned by the emergency shutdown of Isimba hydropower dam,” a report by Daily Monitor, a Ugandan publication, indicated.
On Wednesday, August 17, the neighbouring country reached out to Kenyan authorities for emergency deal to supply power.
The deal was occasioned by blackout that hit several parts of the country including its capital city, Kampala, when floods hit Uganda’s 183-Megawatt Isimba Dam.
Confirming the agreement at the time, Uganda’s Energy Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu, noted that Uganda and Kenya had a bilateral agreement on power trade.
Ssentamu noted that flooding at the dam commissioned only three years ago was due to human error. She, however, did not provide more details on the crisis.
Torrential rains in Uganda come right after a prolonged drought in vast swaths of the country that has left many areas parched and crops in fields scorched.Â
More than 300,000 people were affected by floods and landslides in Eastern Uganda and Bundibugyo in the Western region, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
An estimated 65,000 people were also displaced, the report added.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
