New Speke Courts Hotel building collapses

Speke Courts Hotel in Jinja that was still under construction caved in Monday night. 

Fortunately, no causalities were reported according to the Uganda Red Cross that dispatched a team to the scene last evening.

Eyewitnesses say that the building collapsed at around 7:00 pm as the casual laborers were finalising their day’s duty. 

Edward Musisi, a resident in the neighborhood said that they saw the building collapse but they could not do much because of the narrow access through the hotel’s accommodation area to the accident scene. 

An administrator at the hotel who spoke on condition of anonymity said there were six casual laborers on-site at the time of the accident. She said that one of them was severely injured and is currently admitted at an undisclosed private health facility, the rest reportedly fled and their whereabouts are yet to be ascertained. 

Mr Morris Niyonzima, the Officer In charge of Jinja Central Police Station, said they had started recording statements from the hotel managers about the incident. He said detectives had tasked the hotel managers to account for the casual laborers on site, at the time of the accident. 

Mr Zziwa Herbert, the spokesperson of the National Building Review Board (NBRB), a government body in charge of monitoring building developments, said they were investigating the cause of the accident.

“We have dispatched a team of technical officers that includes architects and engineers who have gone to assess the situation, we shall be updating you about the findings from our team that is working alongside the Police and local authorities in Jinja,” he said Monday night.

However, Mr Twaha Gishebi, the Budondo Ward councilor, who also doubles as the Jinja City Finance Secretary, suspects that the accident resulted from the use of poor-quality building materials. 

“We are looking at the poor building materials used, no supervision. As an engineer, after approving a plan, your role is to come and monitor. The quality of iron bars was so poor if you look at it, as if they were not using cement,” he said.

Additional reporting by URN