Prime
Owner of collapsed building defies police
THAT IS THE MESS: Mr Sekate points at dune of soil that collapsed at the construction site. PHOTO BY ANDREW BAGALA
The police say the owner of the building whose retainer wall collapsed on Tuesday killing three people has defied police summons to appear at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (CID) and record a statement.
Mr John Ssebalamu, a city tycoon, his overall site engineer, chief supervisor and the Wakiso construction inspector, were expected to appear at Kampala Metropolitan South to record statements but none of them turned up.
Police are investigating them over reported negligence that led to the death of three people. Acting Police spokesman Vicent Ssekate said they have only recorded statements of witnesses and few a workers.
“We also urgently need statements of the construction owner and the top engineers of Grapes Construction Company, which is constructing the building. They were supposed to appear before our detectives but didn’t turn up,” Mr Ssekate said yesterday.
The summonses follow the death of three people and the injury of two others when a retainer wall collapsed on the workers at the construction site located on Entebbe Road on Tuesday.
He said they want them to provide police with documentation of the site and plan.
Police say the summoned officials continued to excavate the earth despite warnings from the CID to halt works after neighbouring houses developed cracks.
Mr Sekate said if they continue to ignore summon, then “The law will take its course.”
Detectives have also involved the Ministry of Works and Transport in investigating the incident. The collapse of buildings at construction sites is becoming a common phenomenon in Kampala. In the last three years alone, dozens of labourers have lost their lives at construction sites that have caved in. However, no one has ever been successfully prosecuted over the deaths.
Mid this year, two buildings collapsed at Kololo and Bunga in Kampala, killing four people. In 2008, seven people died and two were injured when a retaining wall collapsed at National Social Security Fund building on Lumumba Avenue in Kampala.
Kampala District Members of Parliament attribute such accidents to lack of supervision of construction sites in Kampala.
