UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | Many people have lost their lives and sustained lifelong injuries in Kampala’s current wave of collapsing buildings, leading to a discussion on who should be held accountable and who is to blame for the capital’s toppling structures.
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has been accused of negligence in the collapsed of a building under construction in Kisenyi Two, Mbiro Zone, Kampala on Friday morning, 4 September, killing one person and injuring others.
John Paul Kubana, the sales director for Murwana J.Peter Stores Limited, a company that sells animal feeds next to the collapsed building, claims that despite reporting the illegal excavations at the site to the KCCA planning department in the past, their complaint was ignored.
“When the owner started plans to construct the collapsed building, we realized he was doing excavations that were entering into our plot in not only an illegal way but putting our stores at risk. We reported the matter to KCCA and they promised to do something to stop the construction but this never happened,” Kubana said.
He said that the building collapse was partially caused by the excavation, which was being done at the construction site after midnight and went deep into the subsurface under their businesses, rendering it hazardous to remain on the premises.
He continues by saying that the building’s owner barred access to neighbouring structures to construct subterranean parking.
He said, “we also realized that the excavation was tactfully done to enter our plot to ensure our business premises are vulnerable and at risk of collapse as a way of forcing us off the land. On numerous occasions, we reported this matter to KCCA planning department citing the ongoing excavations but we got no help until recently when the building under construction collapsed.”
He added, “collapse caused by excavation has now seen us lose space on our stores with the capacity to store 1000 metric tonnes. It is unfortunate we the land owners are being taken through this by a man who seeks to force us off our land, but KCCA is just looking on.”
However, Kubana vowed that the business will soon seek legal recourse from the courts, alleging both KCCA’s carelessness and intentional harm by the building’s owner.
Luke Owoyesigyire, the deputy police spokesperson for Kampala, claims that officers have cordoned off the construction site because it poses a threat to surrounding structures that are built on top of the excavation foundation.
He continues by saying that police had started looking for the runaway site engineer.
According to Eng. David Luyimbazi, deputy executive director of the KCCA, the proposal for the specific building was never authorised.
According to Eng. Luyimbazi, while the event is being investigated, authorities have halted all building-related operations, including excavation.
Legislative Framework
The Building Control Act came into force on October 2nd, 2013. Its purpose was to amend the law relating to erection of buildings as a way to ensure decent, safe and planned building structures. Under the same act, the National Building Review Board (NBRB) and Building Committees were instituted to execute functions in-line with the objectives of the Act.
The Act empowers the NBRB and the Building Committees to stop any construction operation that is found not to be in compliance with the regulations. The Act also regards any omission, commission and negligence of an individual that leads to a building accident punishable by law.
It is safe to say that that the laws and regulations governing the erection of buildings are present and sufficient, however, we cannot ignore the fact that the non-compliance to these laws and regulations is a root cause to many of the building collapses, and the lack of enforcement is only compounding the issue.
Not the First Time KCCA Blamed
In September last year, KCCA came under fire from the NBRB for failing to condemn an illegal structure in Kisenyi that was flouting technical and legal standards until it collapsed and killed five people.
NBRB’s investigations into the cause of the Kisenyi building’s collapse found inconsistence and inefficiencies in KCCA’s Building Committee performance, and accused the City Authority of failing to do its mandate.
Engineer Flavia Bwire, the national building review board executive secretary, mentioned that among other reasons, the Kisenyi building which belongs to city businessman Haruna Ssentongo, claimed 6 lives and left five with serious injuries, collapsed due to the failure by the KCCA building committees to exercise their role as stipulated in the Building Control Act.
Besides violating the Act, KCCA’s building control office also failed to inspect this particular development, which which also contravenes the Act.
Instead, an order to stop illegal construction was issued under the physical planning Act and a notice to remove the development was issued under the public health Act on behalf of the Director for physical planning, not the building control officer. This created inefficiencies because the functions of the BCO cannot be exercised by the physical planner.
At the end of 2021, many buildings were found defaulting in terms of structural integrity and 3,300 buildings were earmarked by KCCA for demolition.
READ MORE LIKE THIS:
Neighbour Plots Legal Action against Kisenyi Tycoon Whose Building Collapsed
NBRB Orders Evacuation of Lotis Towers Building Over Signs of Failure
