KAMPALA, UGANDA: A five-storey building under construction in Kitebi Zone, near Wankulukuku in Rubaga Division collapsed in the wee hours of Tuesday morning killing one person and leaving three injured.
According to residents, the building collapsed in the night at around midnight trapping in the workers who are said to have been sleeping under it.
“We thought it was an earthquake but only to wake up, the building had collapsed,” one of the residents said.
“They have so far recovered one person. We expect that three more people are down there as police have only recovered their phones,” he added.
Residents have criticized KCCA for not inspecting the construction site as they claim that the building collapsed due to use of substandard materials.
Police visited the scene with a team from the National Building Review Board (NBRB) led by their investigations officer, Eng Solom Balemeezi who said the site engineer would be sued if found liable for the shoddy work
“The National Building Control Act 2013 specifically stipulates the punishment for whoever is liable. Our Team is already on ground to assess the cause of the accident. We shall keep you updated,” he said.
Mr. Aloysius Mukasa the Rubaga South MP, who was also at the scene said the “fights” within Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) are partly to blame for the continuous collapse of buildings in Kampala.
“The reason we are here is to ascertain the root cause of the collapse of this structure. I don’t know whether the structure engineer fulfilled his obligations and duties to fully ascertain the truthfulness of the plan that was issued by KCCA. We also want to if the site inspector from Rubaga really did his job to inspect this building from its foundation, “ he said.
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