from the press

Health & Living July 30, 2009

JOSHUA MASINDE

Jane Namala writhes in pain. She tightly clutches her temple with both her hands. She cannot speak but only mutters a few words, expressing the intensity of the pain she is feeling. She has a dental problem and has come to have her two decayed yet painful teeth extracted.
A few metres away, Aisha Nalubega has brought Tatya Nankumba, her 11-month old baby for medical check-up. The baby has an umbilical hernia (an elongated navel), which has given both mother and baby endless nightmares.
Dr Patrick Kaliika, a clinical director who examined Nalubega’s baby, referred them to Masaka District hospital for an operation. Nalubega cannot help but say she does not have money for the operation.
All this unfolds at Mulabana centre, a remote area on Ssese Islands in Kalangala District. Many of the patients suffer silently for many months as there is no trace of a hospital or clinic nearby, but a small health centre located many kilometres away. The health centre often lacks the drugs to meet the patients’ health needs, according to Richard Kirule, the President of Rotary Club of Kampala, Ssese Islands.
At Mulabana centre, patients are strewn all over. Their genuine search for medical examination and attention is written on their faces. For some, especially the women and young children, pain, suffering and destitution are hidden beneath their smiling countenances.
Their wait for the free medical examination and free drugs, even when it’s once per annum, is worth it as they are now receiving free medical care from the members of Rotary Club, Ssese Islands. The opportunity is a God-send to the inhabitants of this almost God forsaken area. The patients are too willing to tell the two doctors, two dentists and the team of Rotarians examining them, of their sicknesses, woes and names.
Richard Kirule, says the free medical outreach extended to the people of Ssese islands, is conducted three times a year. The three times are allotted to different centres of the Ssese islands, in order to reach to a sizeable population of those in dire need of the free medical care. “Coming here quarterly is not enough but it is expensive in terms of time and money,” says Richard. He adds, “We spend a lot of money like Shs2m on doctors and other expenses.” The drugs alone cost them Shs1m.
The medical outreach covers all ailments like malaria, STDs like HIV/Aids, typhoid, flu, ringworms. They also conduct counselling on nutrition and immunisation. According to doctor Kaliika, they also do HIV testing and counselling. “For those who are positive, we refer them to Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) in Kalangala town,” he says.
In addition to this, they not only de-worm the community members, but also give supplements and distribute condoms to those who are in need. The crowd of patients at Mulabana centre, had more dental cases than any other. Most of the patients like Jane Namala and Francis Ziwa, a photographer, had their teeth extracted.
Before the extraction of Namala’s two premolar teeth, she was feeling acute headache. She was unable to express herself. But, Francis Ziwa’s aching tooth took a dentist fifteen minutes to extract. “It was my first time to come here for dental examination,” says Ziwa, adding “It was very painful.” He developed the toothache a year ago, though he would not go to the Health centre in Kalangala town for check up because he could not afford the charges.
Dr Barbarah Nabageraka, who is a dentist based in Kalangala District acknowledges that many of the dental problems are due to the type of food like fish and bread which accelerate teeth decay. “Bad oral and personal hygiene, type of food like fish, which is sticky, make teeth decay quickly,” says Dr Nabagereka. The remedies she and her co-dentist handled were refilling, removal of scales on those with gum diseases and extraction of decayed painful teeth. However, she says there were few cases of refilling as opposed to extractions.

M2: Features July 7, 2009
Benefiting from illegal electricity connections
JOSHUA MASINDE
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/features/Benefiting_from_illegal_electricity_connections_87634.shtml
Jimmy is the caretaker of a residence in Mukwenda Zone, Kawempe Division. For about 10 years, even before he became caretaker, the residence had been glorying on the blessing of illegally connected electricity.
For all that period, they paid little or no bills to Umeme, since their electricity metre couldn’t indicate the watts of power used. In any case, Jimmy says that at various points, it was Umeme which owed them money.
However, their day of reckoning arrived when Umeme officials came calling after someone had tipped them of the illegal connection. “Umeme said someone reported us and we suspect it is the former caretaker, whom we had asked to repay the money he had swindled,” said a forlorn Jimmy.
The money amounted to about Shs2.5m but he is said to have repaid only Shs300,000. Umeme officials estimated the illegal connection to have been in existence for at least two years.
Umeme backdated the bills to two years and it amounted to Shs12m, which they warned that it either be paid or a legal option would be considered. But, after protracted negotiations, at which the culprits confessed the illegal connection was just a few months old, they settled at Shs2.5m, after which a reconnection was made.
Many culprits are yet to be caught, Jimmy admitted. Within the same area, there are many residences, homes and even maize mills, which connect power illegally and have never paid a single cent to Umeme. This has and continues to cost Umeme as they have to grapple with high operational and maintenance costs.
Some maize mills with not only illegal connections but also operating without licenses, are situated in banana plantations, hidden within dwellings. They often operate at night like one in Mukwenda, Kawempe in which they mercilessly utilise the stolen electricity.
The operators of such maize mills could at times be seen climbing electric poles, attached to a transformer, in order to connect power. There is an incident when the transformer was overloaded that it blew up and many residents in the area lost most of their electrical equipment due to the power surge.Though, such illegal connections are costing Umeme, those in the habit claim they can’t afford the high charges on electricity.
This has nevertheless, sometimes driven Umeme to increase power costs to exorbitant rates. At times, they are even forced to overcharge most of their loyal customers, as Abiaz attests.
“They look at your building and set the price for you,” says Abiaz, whose family was once a victim of such exaggerated power costs, despite meeting their past bills religiously. He says nobody was staying at home during that month but they received a bill of about Shs1.6m.
However, he adds that when they brought the case with Umeme officials and when the metre was crosschecked, the bill dropped to about Shs70,000.
But Abiaz says the owner of the former residence where he rented a room, was also surviving on illegal power connection. But, the owner could not allow tenants to use electric coils while cooking or boiling water, to cover any suspicion from Umeme.