The Union Secretary Mesilamu Oloka while visiting the site today also blames Kampala Capital City Authority for failing to follow up the matter and ensure compliance, when its technical team raised a red flag on the construction.
The Uganda Builders and Construction Workers’ Union has faulted the government for failing to enforce proper construction of structures in Uganda. They particularly pointed out the failure to monitor construction sites to ensure that constructors have and follow approved plans.
This comes after a building in Kiwempe village in Makindye Division collapsed on Saturday night killing eleven people. At least 20 people are said to have been inside the building at the time of the tragedy.
The Union Secretary Mesilamu Oloka while visiting the site today also blames Kampala Capital City Authority for failing to follow up the matter and ensure compliance, when its technical team raised a red flag on the construction.
Usher Wilson Owere, the Chairman General of National Organization of Trade Unions says both the government and the owner of the building should be held liable for failing at their job and putting peoples lives at risk. Owere adds that the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development failed at its role of promoting the safety of the worker in the country.
By the time of filing this story, THE police fire and rescue department was still excavating the building to get people who could still be trapped in the rubble. Although Police have cordoned off the area, a number of residents are standing along the boundaries to identify those who are rescued and the recovered bodies.
One of the onlookers was Joseph Kavuma from Sumbwe, Busega who said two of his colleagues died in the collapsed building. The two he says were welders who only came to work at the construction site on Saturday. He identified the two as Sharif and Henry.
John Lule, a chapati seller at a stall barely 30 meters from the collapsed building says on Saturday night they heard something they thought was an earthquake at around 11 pm and rushed to a dusty outside that blurred their vision of events. Then, they found the building had collapsed.
Lule says many of the departed were his customers.
In January this year, eleven workers, five from a collapsed building in Jinja and six from Kansanga.
Hafitha Issa
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