By Our Reporter
Journalists covering Uganda’s energy sector must move beyond reporting project launches and infrastructure statistics to explaining what energy investments actually mean for ordinary Ugandans, a senior communications official has said.
Eddy Khan Semugenyi, Senior Communications Officer at the Uganda Media Centre, said the quality of energy reporting should not be measured by how fast a milestone is reported, but by how effectively it explains its impact on people’s lives.
He was speaking at a media advocacy workshop dubbed Powering the Conversation, organised by REPower Uganda in partnership with Little Hands Go Green (LHGG). The workshop brought together journalists, broadcasters, editors, bloggers and digital content creators to examine how media can improve coverage of Uganda’s energy transition.
Other panelists included Anthony Wolimbwa, National Coordinator of Climate Action Network Uganda (CAN-U), and Hannah Rhoda Nabayunga, Gender and Youth Climate Advocate, who discussed the role of journalism in the energy transition and the need to ensure women, youth and vulnerable communities benefit from energy investments.
Centering his submission on public interest reporting, Khan said journalists must connect policy to everyday experience.
Using the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) as an example, he said coverage should not stop at construction progress. Reporters should interrogate jobs, local content opportunities, enterprise participation for Ugandan businesses, community concerns, compensation, and the expected economic returns for the country.
“The public needs more than announcements about what is being built. It needs reporting that explains what is changing, for whom and at what cost,” Khan said.
Khan said the same critical lens should apply to electricity access reporting. When a new connection is commissioned in a rural district, the journalist’s job is not done at the ribbon-cutting.
Reporters should ask: Can households afford the tariff? Is the supply reliable? Can local businesses, schools and health centres use the power productively to increase incomes and improve services?
He argued that when government or a private company announces a major energy investment, the media has a duty to follow up on implementation, demand evidence, and verify whether promised results have materialised.
He also called for more inclusive sourcing, urging journalists to give a voice to energy consumers and affected communities alongside government officials, project developers and technical experts.
“The story is incomplete if we only quote officials and project developers. The citizen who is supposed to benefit, or who is affected, must also be heard,” he said.
Khan emphasised that accurate, accessible and evidence-based journalism is critical in shaping public understanding and accountability in Uganda’s energy transition, as the country balances its oil and gas ambitions with its renewable energy and universal electricity access goals.
Energy more than a connection
On his part, Anthony Wolimbwa, the National Coordinator of Climate Action Network Uganda, highlighted the importance of energy access to economic development.
His presentation challenged the narrow perception that energy access is simply about connecting households to electricity.
“Energy enables economic activities across agriculture, education, healthcare, manufacturing and trade,” he said.
For journalists, this means examining the relationship between energy investments and the development outcomes they are intended to support.
“A story about solar-powered irrigation, for instance, should establish whether farmers are using the system, whether it is affordable and whether it has improved agricultural production,” he added.
Leave no one behind
In her presentation, Hannah Rhoda Nabayunga, a Gender and Youth Climate Advocate, focused on the need to ensure that women, children, young people and vulnerable communities benefit from energy development.
She highlighted an important question for journalists: whose experiences are represented in the national energy conversation?
“Major energy stories frequently feature ministers, company executives, investors and technical experts. Their perspectives are important, but they do not tell the whole story,” she observed.