GALA Coordinator Criticizes Power Supply to VP’s Residence While Farato Health Center Was in Darkness

By Seedy Jobe

Hakeem Touray, the national coordinator of GALA, has criticized the government over what he described as unequal access to electricity in Farato, saying the vice president’s residence had power while a nearby health center and much of the surrounding community were in darkness.

Speaking on Kerr Fatou’s The Grand Bantaba, Mr. Touray said videos recorded during recent protests in Farato appeared to show electricity at the vice president’s residence even as the surrounding community experienced an outage. He said the Farato health center was also without electricity at the time.

Mr. Touray argued that the contrast reflected misplaced government priorities, particularly when a health facility responsible for treating patients was without reliable electricity.

He also challenged the argument that uninterrupted electricity at the residences of senior government officials is necessary for security.

“If you are talking about security, where should security be more important?” he asked, contrasting the needs of patients at a health facility with those of a government official at home.

Mr. Touray broadened his criticism to President Adama Barrow’s administration, arguing that the recent electricity protests reflected deeper public frustration with the government’s handling of basic services.

Asked what the demonstrations—including protests that reached the vicinity of State House—meant politically for Mr. Barrow and the governing National People’s Party ahead of the Dec. 5 presidential election, Mr. Touray said the government had run out of time to reverse public dissatisfaction.

He said the administration had been in power for nearly a decade and had ample opportunity, particularly during the five years since the 2021 presidential election, to respond to concerns raised by Gambians.

Mr. Touray compared the current political mood to the period preceding the 2016 presidential election, when widespread dissatisfaction contributed to the defeat of former President Yahya Jammeh after more than two decades in power.

While acknowledging differences between the two periods, he argued that the sense of frustration among some Gambians was similar.

“In 2016, before the elections, when Gambians got fed up, everybody could sit and perceive that Yahya Jammeh was done,” Mr. Touray said. “The same frustration that led Gambians to make a decision before is happening again in 2026.”

His comments come as persistent electricity shortages have become a significant source of public discontent, prompting demonstrations and increasing scrutiny of the government and NAWEC over the reliability of the country’s power supply.