When power goes out in the rural town of Soroti in eastern Uganda, store manager Hussein Samsudin can only hope it won't go on so long it spoils his fresh goods.
Another shop owner, Richard Otekat, 37, has to pay a neighbour hourly to use his generator during blackouts as he can't afford to buy one himself, while others simply go without.
However residents of the town, surrounded by thatched huts, rivers and grasslands, hope a new solar plant, which went into operation last week, will bring an end to their electricity woes.
The $19 million (18-million euro), 33-acre solar plant—the first of its kind in East Africa—can produce 10 megawatts of power that is fed into Uganda's national power grid.
The project is crucial as Uganda seeks new ways to bring electricity to the 80 percent of its 40 million-strong population that does not have access to power.
Mud hut, solar panels.
(Score: 3, Informative) by zafiro17 on Friday December 23 2016, @07:27PM
Short answer in response: in over ten years working in Africa, I haven't heard Russia mentioned one single time. Turkey is active in Somalia, and China is heavily involved absolutely everywhere. But I'm not aware of any Russian interventions/projects/investments anywhere on the continent.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey