KCCA divided over collapsed building

Though there had been calls by city leaders and urban planners to bring down the remaining structure to mitigate further losses, KCCA hasn’t demolished it.

KCCA spokesperson Daniel Nuwabiine confirmed the development on Friday.
“It is true he [Ssentongo] submitted his application seeking permission to allow him go ahead with construction but our team will review it and advise accordingly,’’  Mr Nuwabiine said.

But the delayed demolition has sparked a storm among technocrats in the directorates of physical planning and engineering with some of them questioning why the remaining structure is still standing yet the owner deliberately flouted building guidelines.

One of KCCA’s senior engineers, who preferred anonymity, told Daily Monitor that it would be wrong to allow Mr Ssentongo continue with construction.

“How do you allow him to go ahead with construction yet the raw materials which have been found to be sub-standard are the same materials the remaining structure has? It is the same structure and same materials only that part of it collapsed. Approving Mr Ssentongo’s request will be a very big mistake which could cause more harm in future,” he said.

Asked why KCCA hasn’t demolished the remaining structure, Mr Nuwabiine said a team of technocrats have been dispatched to make a structural report on the remaining structure and report to the building committee this week.

But one of KCCA’s engineers argued that KCCA should advise Mr Ssentongo to construct a fresh building instead of adding more weight on the affected structure because materials are sub-standard and could also collapse any time.

KCCA’s executive secretary for works and physical planning Hakim Kiiza Saula, who also sits on the building committee attributed the problem of illegal structures to inadequate manpower.

For instance, he said KCCA approves more than 10 building plans for each division in one week yet there is one building inspector to carry out enforcement.

‘’During council meeting last week, we tasked the standing committee on physical planning to move across the five divisions of the city to find out whether developers are compliant so that they can make a report showing where the problem is,’’ Mr Saula said.

Building report

Findings from the investigations conducted by the National Building Review Board (NBRB) on the collapsed building show that Mr Ssentongo used poor quality construction materials. The report shows that the poor quality of concrete and steel reinforcement resulted in weak structural members that couldn’t support the applied loading.

“The average compressive strength of the concrete used in the construction was found to be less than 3 MPa, which is about 15 per cent of minimum concrete strength expected for such a building. In addition, the yield strength of 16 mm diameter steel reinforcement, which were used in the columns, and some beams was found to be lower by up to 36 per cent, from the required strength of 500 MPa,” the report states.

The report adds: ‘’Despite  the building work being at the fourth level, the foundations were not tied together by any ground beams, were not backfilled, and the ground floor slab was not constructed. This exposed the supporting soil to excessive moisture, weakening the foundations”. 

NBRB recommended that there should be establishment of building control offices as independent and dedicated units within the structure of urban councils and districts to exercise the building control actions.