UMEME Uganda has been put on blast for kidnapping and holding a child for a bribe.
In a post circulating on social media, a lady accuses UMEME for kidnapping her children from home and holding them unless she paid them 1.5 million Uganda shillings.
Read it below
This is not my story, but it hurts if this is how a public utility company behaves;
” UMEME KIDNAPPED MY CHILDREN FOR A RANSOM
Kampala, Friday 28th May 2021
Dear fellow Ugandan citizens and parents,
Yesterday Thursday the 27th May 2021 was a dark day for me and my family. I was in town when I was informed that two of my daughters had been picked up from my house by Umeme and taken to an unknown location.
I was further told that representatives from Umeme reached my residence, cut off power from the pole outside the premises and cut the cable that connects to the house too, even though my residence is actually connected to Umeme through a Yaka meter and we still had enough units remaining at the time of disconnection. Once all this was done, the Umeme representatives knocked on the gate and two of my daughters – a university student and an 11-year-old primary school student – went to open the gate. As soon as they opened the gate, they were accused by the Umeme representatives of stealing power and forced to march instantly with them to Salama road to board a taxi.
My girls requested to make a phone call to me or my husband, but they were denied that right. These Umeme representatives took my children through a walk of shame around the neighbourhood and all the way to Salama road where they met other hostages from other homes who included househelps, children and elderly people that were found at home.
Along Salama road, my 11-year-old daughter was dropped off and asked to find her way home, as they said they needed only one person per home while they proceeded with my other daughter who begged them in vain not to do so, as her sister didn’t know her way home. Thankfully my younger daughter asked a passer-by who helped her to call her dad, so that he could give her directions home and so that she could inform him that her sister had been taken by Umeme to an unknown location. Luckily, my younger daughter managed to eventually reach home safely, even though she was very frightened.
When we heard about the unfortunate events, my husband and I rushed to the Umeme headquarters at Rwenzori Courts where the front office receptionist called a man named Godwin who reprimanded us for going to the headquarters instead of looking directly for him, even though we had never met him or spoken with him before. He then insulted us and called us a bunch of thieves before requesting for a bribe of UGX 1.5m, which he claimed was the penalty for a house with an illegal Umeme connection.
The receptionist then informed us that our eldest daughter was taken to Natete police station and gave us the contact details of an Umeme employee who was holding her alongside the other people that had been kidnapped and arrested. When we spoke with him, he instructed us not call him again until we had the UGX 1.5m bribe supposedly required to pay for the girl’s police bond. At this point, my husband left to go and confirm if our daughter was actually at Natete police station and we agreed that I would stay put at the Umeme headquarters until we were sure that she was actually at Natete police station.
At around 6:30pm, two male Umeme representatives came down to the reception and told me that if I didn’t have UGX 1.5m, I should at least pay half of that money, so that they would release my daughter. When I refused to pay them the bribe that they had requested, they called the 4 security guards that sit outside their office and asked them to come and drag me out of the premises.
At this point, the Umeme receptionist gave me her phone and asked me to talk to a lady called Christine who identified herself as the head of the Umeme unit in charge of disconnecting households illegally connected to the power grid. As I was still talking with Christine, a security guard came and hit me from the back and punched me on my ribs. They kept punching and hitting me, as I was screaming due to the pain, while the remaining Umeme staff members were standing by and recording videos of the abuse on their phones while laughing.
Afterwards, I tried to call a couple of press contacts and police officers, asking them to come to my rescue, but unfortunately none was within town. I lied outside the Umeme headquarters in agony until around 8:30pm when my husband called me to confirm that my eldest daughter was indeed at Natete Police Station. He also informed me that he had luckily managed to get her released without paying a bribe by threatening to sue the police for human rights abuses. I then proceeded to the Central Police Station in my torn dress and bruised with swellings on my ribs, legs, swollen hands and head. I also managed to be seen by the police doctor for assessment and my case file is currently being handled by the Central Police Station.
To my fellow parents, talk to your children and househelps and tell them not to open the house gates for these criminals. To all Ugandans, let’s join hands and stop this form of impunity by these service providers turned criminals. My 11-year-old daughter has been traumatised and is now even afraid to come out of the house because of these child abusers. I call upon the Ugandan Government, civil society organisations, politicians, the Uganda Law Society, the Ugandan Police, the 11th parliament of the Republic of Uganda and all well-wishers to join hands and stop these illegal scams from continuing. Remember: today it’s my household, but tomorrow it might be yours, so let’s stop this together in order to protect our families.
Annet M.
