Background
Erisa Kironde qwas born on September 17,1926, in Mukono in the east of Buganda.
Erisa Kironde qwas born on September 17,1926, in Mukono in the east of Buganda.
Educated at King’s College, Budo from 1944 to 1945 and at Makerere University College from 1946 to 1949 and at King’s College, Cambridge from 1950 to 1954, where he took a BA. He taught at his old school from 1954 to 1959 and then until 1962 became a lecturer at Makerere.
Appointed chairman to the Uganda Electricity Board in 1962, he became the longest serving chairman of any public corporation. But he was subjected to continual political frustration as he waited for the major policy decisions to be made on the future of the national hydro-electric resources.
Under President Obote he hoped that a modification of the Murchison Falls scheme would eventually be accepted, but when President Amin came to power he was never given the opportunity to discuss the future of the electricity industry or establish a clear line of policy.
He left Uganda early in 1972 on protracted leave in Britain and resigned without returning home on January 25, 1973.
An urbane ex-university lecturer, happy growing roses or play acting, who ran Uganda’s Electricity Board with professional efficiency. His main problem was the expansion of national power supplies with the Owen Falls dam at peak capacity. He was keen on the scheme for a new dam upstream from the Murchison Falls, first proposed in 1968 but since delayed for political reasons.