Speak Out Against Abuse of Rights By Service Providers

A good friend of mine who migrated from law into active politics once told me a hilarious story.  He told me that his cantankerous and loud nature manifested early in his childhood. If ever he was sick or had any problem in the middle of the night, he said, he would cry and scream at the top of his lungs to ensure that the whole family heard him. That way, his parents attended to him quickly because if they didn’t his siblings would also wake up and start kicking up ruckus.

I took a leaf out of my friend’s childhood tactics last week when I related the tale of Umeme Limited’s illegal and unethical conduct. Fellow consumers woke up and filled my Twitter feed and my e-mail box with wide ranging related and unrelated complaints against the corporation. Perhaps the funniest came from a popular TV personality, who wrote that Umeme really stands for “Uganda’s Management of Electricity Mystifies Everybody” and signed off with the words “They are robbing us in the dark!”

As I told you last week, Umeme made a quiet apology to me and hoped that the problem would go away but, going by the volume of responses that I have had all week, it would appear that I was just one consumer caught up in the nightmare of Umeme’s bad behaviour. So this week, as the tide of complaints grew, the savvy public relations team stepped up Umeme’s game by offering an apology to the consumers on Twitter and on Sanyu FM’s Breakfast Show. This is, no doubt, a step in the right direction. But there are several unanswered questions and the gravity of the situation seems to me to merit a statement and an apology to all consumers from the top management of the corporation. There is no plausible way that such wide ranging and persistent misconduct could have gone unnoticed by the top management and Board. If it did go unnoticed, then top management and the Board should step forward and admit that they are not competent to manage a utility company. It is also beyond doubt, that all of this reprehensible conduct was done in the pursuit of the profits out of which top management and the Board have taken hefty chunks. An apology from a person who is paid to tweet on behalf of Umeme is good, but an apology to all consumers from the people who got the tangible benefits in the form of fat pay cheques and bonuses would be far better. To those whom much is given, much is expected.

In the ordinary civic narrative, the citizens’ need to know their rights is expressed as a guarantee against abuse or exploitation meted out by the State or State officials.  We tend to think about human rights in terms of the Chapter 4 of the Constitution; regularly citing the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to life etc. against the Police, the Army, RDCs and Ministers. But few of us have realized the subtle but important change in the terrain that came as a result of the World Bank imposed structural adjustment program. The wide ranging privatization of the delivery of basic public services means that these days, your fundamental human rights may be impacted as much by a foreign owned corporation seeking and working purely for profit as by a government official motivated by local politics. 

Over the years, our history has taught us to fear the Government and to roll over when our basic rights are being trampled upon, if only to save the most fundamental one of all – life. A few bold souls speak out against abuse of rights by the State but the overwhelming majority has been preprogrammed not to rock the boat. We grin and bear it, just grateful to be alive. 

Therefore it is no surprise that some of the private corporations which acquired the parastatal organizations that used to deliver public services have premised their plans for profit on the back of the presumed ignorance and gullibility of Ugandans. They make a calculation of profit based on practices that they simply wouldn’t contemplate doing in their home countries. They get away with it most of the time because of our predisposition to silent compliance and our inordinate gratitude for services that we are paying through the nose for. We are cowed by the fact that we could have been going without and made to suffer in silence because these corporations are allegedly doing us a big favour.  

I believe the key lesson that we must draw from this still unfolding Umeme episode is that we must end the twin culture of ignorance of our rights and suffering in silence.  There is every reason to fear men with guns but we should not also fear these men with briefcases. If you are reaching into your pocket and paying for any service the service provider is your servant and you are his boss. The corporations have no right to disrespect or treat you shabbily as they take your hard earned cash. Speak out and you will be heard.

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