Rather than persuasion, Uganda’s IPO electricity company, Umeme –loosely translated as Electricity– resorted to use of illegal means such as issuance of disconnection notices bundled with threats of imprisonment upon refusal to switch from the traditional post-paid mode to the prepaid mode locally known as YAKA. This didn’t go well with David Mpanga a.k.a @dfkm1970 by the Twitterati, a top Uganda lawyer who deeply believes in constitutionalism, rule of law and common sense. He opened a can of worms about Umeme’s whimsey ways of forcing its adept but rather ignorant consumers to switch to the YAKA programme lest they face the tough arm of the law. The astute lawyer rebuked Umeme’s elicit ways on social media, upon which massive engagement was driven due to the sensitive nature of the case. News spread even faster with an Op-ed in the Daily monitor to the shock of many who had fallen prey to Umeme’s dirty antics. That is the knock out that sent Umeme sprawling in mud amid cheers and emotions baying for its ‘blood.’ The series of technical knockouts on local scene had just been commenced by a record 7 second kickboxing fight thanks to a motor mouthed Moses Golola who luckily aced his biggest foe. Unlike the former, David’s infuriation was sired by abuse of the law at the expense of the unsuspecting public: Of course, Umeme’s image is left in jeopardy, as norm has it; their PR team was quick to apologise for the inconveniences caused and highly regretted the unbecoming behaviour of their workers. Meanwhile, the dust isn’t yet settled six days after unmasking of the ‘bad’ guy. Whilst, the engagement on twitter has doubled, the YAKA implementors, in equal proportions have doubled their threats in some parts of the country
Outsourcing gone bad!?
Business outsourcing has significantly grown by more than a ten fold now compared to the previous decade. The bubble has expanded out of the common “call-center” outsourcing. Companies such as Umeme find outsourcing as a safe haven besides being an efficient delegate of their duties. Perhaps the firm outsourced to didn’t really understand what was required of them. To fuel the fire they used funny laws to threaten people into using the service.
Some Ugandans do read the small print on agreements
To borrow a clichéd quote; if you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book. On the contrary, Ugandans actually read –some of them. Many have voiced their concerns, albeit not on the aforementioned contention, but the offending companies have decided keep mum. In fact, a myriad of tweets have been bombarded to Umeme and partners in crime (read poor service providers) for more than fours years but this particular case has hit where it hurts most — it went viral on both traditional and social media. This may not be a replica of the proverbial David V Goliath fight. However, not only did the underdog win in this case but also tens of thousands of innocent but ignorant users have been educated about their consumer rights via social media. Now, that’s a plus. Image via Newvision
