Masaka leaders revive plan to close dilapidated buildings

Masaka City authorities have rekindled their plan of closing buildings that don’t meet standards. Last year, city authorities had given landlords a grace period of six months to renovate their buildings, which expired last December.

However, landlords under their umbrella body, Masaka City Landlords and Property Owners Forum, protested the move, saying it was unfair for authorities to push them to renovate their buildings when those occupied by various departments of the city council are still in a sorry state.

This forced the city authorities to halt the enforcement of the order and looked for funds to renovate public buildings.

Among the public buildings currently undergoing renovation include; Baroda located on Elgin Street, which  houses the regional police offices, Nyendo /Mukungwe Municipality offices  , and the office of the city clerk.

Other city council departments housed in the dilapidated building include; health, education, and works. All these are going to receive a facelift, according to Mr Musa Maberi, the Masaka City Council health inspector.

Mr Mabera said after renovating public buildings, it will become easier for councils to compel landlords to give a facelift to their buildings.

Justification
“We secured some funds and we are going to use part of it to repair public buildings that are dilapidated. So, landlords should also do the same to avoid inconveniences,” Mr Mabera said in an interview on Tuesday.

He, however, declined to disclose how much money will be spent on renovating public buildings.
The city health inspector said landlords who will fail to renovate their buildings will be dragged to the city court and fined Shs960,000.

According to Mr Maberaaa, the landlords, among others, are supposed to have approved building plans as well as having functional toilets on their buildings.Mr Rogers Buregeya, the chairperson of the city finance committee, said they are happy that the new city leadership has closed several gaps where the council was losing revenue and can now use such money to do several projects such as renovating public buildings.

“Previously, we were losing a big percent of locally generated revenue through unclear channels, but the current leadership is keen, and that is why we can have some funds to renovate public buildings,” he said   

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.

“It could have been double standards for the authorities to close private buildings, which are in a sorry state, yet even their offices were housed in dilapidated structures, but now that we have seen their commitment to renovate public buildings, it’s necessary for our members to follow suit,” he said.

Other concerns
The decision to close buildings that don’t 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 use of buckets to answer nature’s call and later pour the human waste on the streets.

Background 
Available statistics show that Masaka City has a total of 20,061 buildings. The structures range from commercial buildings to hotels and recreation parks, among others.

Nyendo-Mukungwe Municipality leads with 16,686 buildings, while Kimaanya-Kabonera Municipality has 3,375 buildings.