Hillary Lokwang, the Member of Parliament for IK County, in Kaabong District, has faulted the government of Uganda and Telecom service providers in the country for neglecting to establish modern communication infrastructure in the district, which is impeding socio-economic development and security in the area, on top of making his constituents miss out on a number of services, both from the public and private sectors.

The legislator faults telecom giants Airtel Uganda and MTN Uganda for reportedly failing to work hand in hand with the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), and the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), to establish modern infrastructure like masts and internet cables that can solve the problem of poor network reception in the district.

Lokwang’s concern comes at a time when mobile telephone communication in Kaabong District, which is located in Karamoja Sub-region, is so bad because of poor network reception, to the extent that people from several villages have to climb trees so as to be able to get network reception, although that too is still poor.

Lokwang contends that this issue of poor network reception in the district has persisted for several years and that despite his efforts to notify the concerned authorities both within government and the telecommunication industry, nothing has been done to rectify the matter.

Speaking to this website about the matter, Hon. Lokwang said; “Thank you for raising the flag of network challenge in our constituency; I have been writing several times to telecom companies, line ministry and UCC since 2016 to date, but I will not get tired of pursuing the dream.”

He added; “However recently I engaged the ICT Minister Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi who has promised to push for us to have a better network connection. I pointed out several issues affecting Ik people including security, business etc.”

Indeed, documents seen by The Standard News  Website indicate that Hon. Lokwang has several correspondences over the matter to concerned authorities, although his efforts are yet to yield any fruits.

The legislator first raised the matter in letters he wrote to both Airtel Uganda and MTN Uganda on October 13th, 2016, notifying both companies about the poor network reception in the district, and requesting them to construct enough masts so as to solve the problem.

Lokwang’s letter to both Airtel and MTN Uganda reads in part thus;

“IK Community is geographically located in the North Eastern extreme of Uganda, Karamoja Sub-region, in Kaboong District. IK County is a new county created in 2015. It’s a mountainous and hard-to-reach area with limited access to development opportunities. It borders Western Kenya i.e. Turkana West district of Kakuma and South Sudan from Eastern Equatoria, near Zulu Mountain.

Due to the lack of a communication network in the area, my Constituency needs urgent support from your Company to solve the problem.

Please include IK County as part of your planned priorities…..

However, ever since he wrote the letter, none of the two telecom service providers has expressed intentions to improve the communication infrastructure in Kaabong District.

Although MTN has never responded to his request, it was only Airtel that took the trouble to reply to Lokwang’s request, albeit their reply being a technical rebuff, which has never been acted upon since then.

In a letter dated October 14th, 2016 by then Airtel Uganda Managing Anwar Soussa, the company notified Lokwang that they had duly received his request and would do everything possible to solve the problem, although to date nothing has ever been done about it.

The letter that Soussa wrote to Lokwang in reply to his request reads in part thus;

“We hereby acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 13 October 2016 regarding the subject matter.

We wish to reassure you that Airtel Uganda is committed to extending telecommunication services to as many areas as possible in Uganda.

Therefore, our technical personnel will review your request to explore the possibility of setting up a communication mast in IK sub-County, and to determine its commercial viability. We will inform you about our next course of action, once the feasibility study is complete…”

Since then, Lokwang has never heard anything else from Airtel Uganda, yet the problem still persists in the district, which he says not only affects economic development but also makes it difficult for security personnel to coordinate operations within the area.

Hon. Lokwang contends that after waiting in vain for Airtel and MTN to solve the matter, he decided to seek the intervention of the former Minister for ICT Frank Tumwebaze, to whom he wrote a letter over the same issue, but he didn’t get any satisfactory response from his office.

When the 11th Parliament came into operation after the 2021 general election, Lokwang wrote a letter to Hon. Chris Baryomunsi, the Minister for ICT and National Guidance, on April 09th, 2021, whom he notified about the need to improve communication infrastructure in Kaabong District.

However, Lokwang didn’t get a response from Baryomunsi’s office, which prompted him to write another letter about the same matter dated March 20th, 2023, and although he is yet to receive official communication from the Minister’s office, the MP is optimistic that Baryomunsi is likely to do what the predecessor failed to accomplish, by working together with Airtel and MTN Uganda to solve this impasse.

It should be noted that while major telecommunication companies like MTN and Airtel operate in the area, phone connectivity remains a formidable obstacle in the parishes of Morungole, Timu, Kalapata, and Kamion within the Ik Constituency.

In these areas, residents find themselves resorting to a specific tree with network coverage whenever they need to make or receive calls, whereas sending and receiving mobile money takes up to 2 hours before a transaction is completed!