UGANDA, Masaka | Real Muloodi News | Masaka City authorities have rekindled their plan to close dilapidated buildings that do not meet standards after granting landlords a grace period of six months to renovate their buildings.
The grace period expired last December, and the city authorities halted the enforcement of the order due to protests by landlords under their umbrella body, Masaka City Landlords and Property Owners Forum.
They argued that it was unfair to push them to renovate their buildings when those occupied by various departments of the city council were still in a dilapidated state.
However, the city authorities have looked for funds to renovate public buildings, including Baroda located on Elgin Street, which houses the regional police offices, Nyendo/Mukungwe Municipality offices, and the office of the city clerk.
The health, education, and works departments of the city council are also housed in the dilapidated building and will receive a facelift. This renovation will make it easier for councils to compel landlords to give a facelift to their buildings, according to Mr Musa Maberi, the Masaka City Council health inspector.
Mr Maberi said that landlords who fail to renovate their buildings will be dragged to the city court and fined USh960,000.
Among others, landlords are supposed to have approved building plans as well as functional toilets in their buildings.
Hajj Noor Njuki Mbabaali, the spokesperson of Masaka City Landlords and Property Owners Forum, said they are mobilising their members that have not yet painted their buildings to do so.
Mr Rogers Buregeya, the chairperson of the city finance committee, is happy that the new city leadership has closed several gaps where the council was losing revenue.
The council can now use such money to do several projects such as renovating public buildings.
Previously, the council was losing a significant portion of locally generated revenue through unclear channels, but the current leadership is keen, he said.
The decision to close buildings that do not meet city standards comes when the city council is on the spot over buildings in the city that operate without modern sanitary facilities.
Traders operating on several commercial buildings have always complained of the charges levied by building owners to access lavatory facilities, forcing some to resort to using buckets to answer nature’s call and later pouring human waste on the streets.
Masaka City has a total of 20,061 buildings, including commercial buildings, hotels, and recreation parks.
Nyendo-Mukungwe Municipality leads with 16,686 buildings, while Kimaanya-Kabonera Municipality has 3,375 buildings, according to available statistics.
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