As the rapid pace of urbanization reshapes the landscape of the Global South, the challenge of equitable energy provision intensifies, particularly in African cities where informal settlements have become emblematic of the uneven progress toward modern infrastructure. While grid electrification remains the benchmark of successful energy access worldwide, its reality in cities like Kampala, Uganda, reveals a stark and troubling divergence from this ideal. Despite the symbolic presence of the electrical grid, many urban residents continue to rely heavily on polluting and harmful fuels such as charcoal and kerosene for basic energy needs. This dissonance between infrastructure availability and actual service delivery exposes the complex interplay of socio-economic, technical, and institutional barriers that undermine energy equity in Africa’s burgeoning metropolises.
The latest study by Kersey, Massa, Lukuyu, and colleagues provides a rare, deeply empirical exploration of this phenomenon by focusing on the nature of electricity access within 25 informal settlements across Kampala. Adopting a mixed-methods framework combining household surveys, in-depth interviews, and cutting-edge remote power quality monitoring, the researchers unravel the tangled web of electricity distribution – highlighting the intermediary roles that local supply agents play. These intermediaries often act as the vital yet informal conduits between utility companies and end users, creating a diverse ecosystem of service arrangements that shape not only affordability but also reliability, voltage stability, safety, and user autonomy. The findings compel a critical reevaluation of the simplistic metric traditionally employed to measure electrification success.
Traditional tools such as the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF), which assess energy access on a standardized rubric of quality and quantity, fall short in capturing the nuanced realities uncovered in Kampala’s informal settlements. The research team documented 29 unique service arrangements that represent radically different configurations of physical, financial, and social electricity flows. These arrangements, frequently characterized by informality and precarity, reveal that access is neither uniform nor secure. Voltage fluctuations, intermittent availability, and opaque pricing mechanisms craft a daily energy experience that is both unreliable and hazardous, disavowing the notion of the grid as a reliable modern service for all urban residents.
The implications of these findings are profound. First, they highlight that the mere presence of grid infrastructure is insufficient to guarantee meaningful energy access, especially for marginalized communities who remain locked in cycles of energy poverty. The underlying mechanisms of service distribution—rooted in historical inequalities, financial precarities, and regulatory gaps—exacerbate disparities between middle-class neighborhoods with stable connections and low-income areas heavily dependent on informal intermediaries. Without addressing these systemic complexities, electrification efforts risk entrenching rather than alleviating energy injustice.
Investigations into the financial flows among the utility, intermediaries, and users reveal a labyrinthine network where costs are often inflated, and affordability remains an elusive ideal. Informal arrangements tend to impose surcharges, irregular billing, and prepayment constraints that disproportionately disadvantage low-income households. This not only affects consumption patterns but also shapes users’ relationship with electricity, fostering a cautious, rationed use of the resource that compromises health, education, and economic opportunities. These findings articulate a stark contradiction between official goals of universal electrification and lived realities on the ground.
Voltage stability emerged as an equally critical concern. The study’s remote power quality monitoring demonstrated that supply voltage in informal settlements frequently strays from national standards, causing damage to electric appliances and increasing the risk of electrocution and fires. Such technical instabilities undermine user trust and exacerbate service precariousness, highlighting the invisible costs of poor-quality connections. Hence, the study urges a shift in focus from simple connection counts to measures capturing quality and safety aspects embedded within the user experience.
This work also underscores the central role of autonomy—or lack thereof—in shaping electricity use. Informal arrangements limit users’ control over when and how electricity is consumed due to dependency on intermediaries who often determine supply schedules and usage conditions. This dynamic casts a shadow over energy democracy, where electricity is expected to empower individuals. Instead, many residents find themselves locked into relationships that resemble dependency rather than partnership, narrowing the pathways toward sustainable and inclusive urban energy futures.
Importantly, this study does not shy away from the social dimensions that undergird electricity access inequities. Interviews with residents elucidate the complexities of negotiating connections, managing intermittent supply, and navigating the informal economy embedded within energy access. The researchers situate these experiences within broader urban governance challenges, including weak enforcement of regulatory frameworks that permit the flourishing of informal practices. They identify that addressing energy inequities thus requires multi-level strategies spanning policy reform, infrastructural upgrades, and community engagement.
From a methodological standpoint, combining traditional fieldwork with remote power quality measurement presents a novel approach that enriches the understanding of electricity in informal contexts. This integrative method offers a replicable model for other cities grappling with similar issues, encouraging researchers and policymakers to move beyond black-box metrics and embrace a more holistic conception of energy access that accounts for technical, financial, and social parameters concurrently.
The research furthermore sheds light on the persistence of energy poverty in African cities, which is often invisible in official statistics. While electrification rates may appear to climb, the real picture unveiled in Kampala suggests millions remain trapped in substandard, unsafe, and unreliable energy systems. This invisibility hampers policy responses and funding flows aimed at transforming energy access at scale, making this study’s emphasis on granular, on-the-ground realities critical for informed decision-making.
Looking forward, the authors call for coordinated interventions that recognize the complexity of urban electricity systems shaped by informality. This includes revisiting tariff structures to improve fairness, investing in grid upgrades to enhance technical quality, strengthening regulatory oversight to curtail illicit intermediaries, and promoting community-based solutions that expand autonomy and safety. Achieving these ambitious goals is integral not only to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 7 targets on energy but also to fostering equitable urban development across the Global South.
The inequities highlighted by this study resonate beyond Kampala, reflecting a widespread challenge as urbanization strains existing utilities and exposes socio-technical faults. African cities, characterized by rapid growth and sprawling informal settlements, exemplify the urgency of more nuanced policy frameworks that address both infrastructure and the conditions that regulate access. Understanding the intricate service arrangements that mediate the flow of electricity opens new pathways to dismantle barriers and empower marginalized urban dwellers in transformative ways.
In sum, the work profoundly enriches the discourse on energy justice by documenting how electrification without equitable service quality perpetuates disparities and fails to meet the promise of modern energy. It invites stakeholders across governments, utilities, and civil society to reflect on how grid connection metrics can be redefined to encompass the realities of informal urban energy landscapes. Only through such a recalibration can aspirations for fair, reliable, and dignified energy access be realized for Africa’s fast-urbanizing populations.
This study, therefore, stands as a clarion call to rethink energy access metrics, policies, and implementation modalities. The future of African urban energy lies not solely in expanding grids but in untangling the socio-technical knots that define how electricity is distributed, consumed, and controlled. Addressing these complexities with rigor and empathy is essential to forging cities that sustainably serve all residents, especially those at the margins.
Subject of Research: Electricity access inequities and grid connection configurations in informal settlements within African cities, with a focus on Kampala, Uganda.
Article Title: Grid connections and inequitable access to electricity in African cities.
Article References:
Kersey, J., Massa, C.K., Lukuyu, J. et al. Grid connections and inequitable access to electricity in African cities. Nat Cities 2, 413–421 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00221-1
Image Credits: AI Generated
