According to municipal officials, many of these buildings have been constructed without the necessary technical oversight from Town Engineers. Some structures are being built directly on sanitary lanes and road reserves, complicating efforts to expand essential services such as sewage systems, piped water, and electricity poles.
A detective involved in the investigation, who requested anonymity, revealed that illegal power connections are often used as campaign tools by some politicians in the Busoga sub-region. These politicians, having failed to fulfill their promises, allegedly support power theft to alleviate pressure from their political opponents.
The operation, overseen by Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita-Gowa, was prompted by local tips suggesting an influx of suspected illegal immigrants in Kabalagala and Kansanga areas.
According to reports, Kavuma was attempting to connect an illegal powerline to his cinema hall when he suffered a fatal electric shock. His body has been taken to Bugiri General Hospital mortuary, where it awaits a postmortem examination before being handed over to his family for burial.
The Jinja City Spokesperson, Rajab Kitto says that the operation was sanctioned early this week due to unregulated businesses that have been set up in the city.
Ruto Chepchumba, the Busia county commissioner, says that the suspects will undergo full trial under the Kenyan law on fisheries, adding that they will serve as an example to their colleagues who have become perennial trespassers into Ugandan waters.
Kasim Mayemba, a resident in the area, says that there has been uncontrolled encroachment on Walukuba land for the past 10 years, under the watch of both political and technocrats, which sparked anger among concerned citizens.
"When I saw her collapse to the ground, I had thought that maybe she missed a step, only to notice sparks from different electric wires, which made me realize she had met her death," her husband Livingstone Lukwise says.
The accused are among the dozens of suspects being arrested in a joint security crackdown aimed at cleaning up the criminal black spot areas of Bugembe and Mafubira in Jinja city.
According to Ongadia, he bought the UPDF uniform from an undisclosed source at Shillings 38,000. He told detectives at Bugembe police station where he is locked up that he was under pressure to formalize his conjugal relationship with his girlfriend, which forced him to resort to illegal roadblocks to get money to finance their traditional marriage ceremony.
It is reported that the trio; Paul Kivumbi, David Kivumbi and Laston Kabutanga picked Gavamukulya from a local eatery in the Irundu trading centre and battered him with blunt objects on Saturday night. They accused him of stealing cassava
George Masanga, another resident, says that most of the illegal settlers are reluctant to register their existence with the local authorities, which makes it hard to trace them in case of incidents such as sudden death, and theft of property, among others.
The suspects were arrested from different highway points in Jinja city and are said to have been part of the bigger group of youths who on Monday engaged in running battles with security personnel.
The dealers normally store the illegal fishing nets in their homes and sell them off to clients, most of whom in the end act as their agents within the remote landing sites across different lakes within the country.
Rashid Kasaajja, the Bukagabo landing site chairperson, says that much as the Fisheries Protection Unit-FPU personnel have labored to sensitize fishermen on the disadvantages of using illegal fishing gear, which contribute to the increase of fatal accidents across the lake, most of them have remained adamant.
Speaking to journalists on Saturday, the residents who use part of the land for distilling waragi, say they will lose their source of livelihood if the authorities evict them. Nelson Opoka is one of the affected residents. According to Opoka, he inherited the land from his late predecessors in 2003 and decided to construct rental units housing 12 tenants.
UMEME’s Jinja area manager, Paul Ssempira however says that despite their efforts to sensitize communities on the dangers involved in power thefts, the vice tends to thrive, which has since compromised the power supply chain to the legally connected consumers.
