Locals in Kisenyi have blamed the Kampala Capital City Authority –KCCA for failing to regulate greedy proprietors using substandard engineers and building materials to do construction.
This follows an incident on Sunday in which a storied building under construction in downtown Kampala collapsed burying builders, drivers, food vendors, and bystanders all on-site.
The proprietor of the collapsed building has been identified as Haruna Kiggundu.
The locals say the absence of KCCA in inspecting, regulating, and approving construction of building sites has cost the majority of builders their lives at City buildings.
Akira Annet a local leader in Kisenyi 2, who lost her son in the incident says proprietors are still taking advantage of the covid19 situation to hurriedly put up structures even without approval from KCCA.
She says ”I lost my son and grandchildren in the collapse, they are using this chance of the lockdown and covid19 to build structures at breakneck speed without letting the foundation dry properly, we are begging the relevant authorities and proprietors to ensure they hire professional engineers, who can differentiate between fake and good building materials and the mode of construction.”
‘‘I am a builder, I was contacted to come and do finishing here,I told them to give me 2 -3 days but i heard the building had fallen, the problem comes first from proprietors, because builders use any materials given to them and then the KCCA for failing to regulate”.Alex said
However, locals fear that the number could be higher than that because several people working at the same building are still unaccounted for.
‘Vox pops;’” bodies are still trapped in the rubble, my friend Kizito Moses was here when the building collapsed but I cannot find him. While visiting the site, the Kampala central Mayor Salim Uhuru while visiting the site, says that more than 50 people were trapped under rubble. No one is allowed in, yesterday by 8 pm police sealed off the structure and sent us home because of curfew. bodies are still missing, we saw many people working up to when the building, we want to see the dead bodies, about 6 women, only 2 have been found, where are the rest”
Dan Nuwabaine the KCCA Spokesperson regrets the incident and says all those responsible for the shoddy work on the structure will be arrested as investigations continue .
He however says only 7 people died in the incident and others were injured, he adds that they will continue to search for missing persons in the rubble.
He however says it has been established that the proprietor was constructing his building during night hours.
‘‘We are still trying to establish the exact owner of this building, we are working on getting a report from the physical planning directorate, and land registration commission to get the facts”,
Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has demanded an investigation into how the KCCA authorized the construction of the substandard building.
He also says police is haunting the proprietor Kiguundu and others responsible for the collapsed building,
By Rashidah Nakaayi
