Afrika Vuka Day _CECIC_2025
Kasese marked Africa Day with a powerful new message: “Power by the People.” At the #AfrikaVuka celebration hosted by CECIC Uganda, youth, women, and displaced families gathered under the Rwenzori skyline to demand centralized, community-owned renewable energy hubs that eliminate both energy poverty and fossil fuel dependence. Solar micro-grids lighting classrooms, irrigation pumps powered by the sun, and hands-on photovoltaic (PV) training sessions for residents of Muhokya Camp model that could work perfectly.
Similar efforts across Uganda echoed this vision. In Oyam District, CECIC supported by NGOs installed community solar water systems for off-grid health centers. In Hoima, women trained by CECIC are now assembling solar home kits and powering their businesses. These initiatives demonstrate that clean energy must not only be accessible it must also be owned and governed by the communities that use it.
At the heart of the event was the Kasese Clean-Energy Pact, a local declaration signed by community leaders, youth activists, and civil society organizations. The pact urges the Ugandan government to prioritize energy democracy in its revised National Energy Policy by ensuring public funding for decentralized systems, establishing fair tariffs, and securing permanent youth representation on local energy governance boards.
During the vibrant Energy Café session, youth participants boldly pledged to disrupt the status quo. They called on local and national leaders beginning with those in Kasese to co-create a new energy pact that targets the root causes of energy poverty. This youth-led pact would prioritize socially owned energy systems, anchored in equity, community participation, and long-term sustainability.
Panel discussions featured moving testimonies from residents of the Muhokya Displacement Camp, offering a stark reminder of climate injustice. Survivors spoke of how flash floods and extreme heatwaves forced them from their homes, and how energy scarcity worsened their hardship. Yet they also shared stories of hope like a solar-powered tailoring workshop run by displaced women, or a battery charging station now supporting dozens of households.
These lived experiences form the backbone of a growing demand for a just energy transition one based on human rights, not charity; one in which ownership remains with the people, not corporations or distant developers. The youth of Kasese are not merely asking for access to energy they are demanding the power to shape how it is produced, distributed, and managed.
AfrikaVuka Day made it clear ; the energy transition is not just a technological shift it is a political and social one. A fossil-free Africa cannot be built without listening to and centering the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. From the shores of Lake Albert to the slopes of Mount Rwenzori, the message resounded: the future is renewable, local, and just.
Kasese now calls on the rest of Africa to replicate this model linking community ownership with regional green job creation. The age of fossil fuels is ending. The era of people-powered energy has begun.
