Uganda House on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya, on fire during anti-Finance Bill demonstrations on June 25, 2024. PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG
Unanswered questions continue to swirl over the torching on Tuesday of the six-storey Uganda House on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi central business district, which was due for commissioning on Friday.
The multi-level commercial building had been recently undergoing renovation at a cost of Shs24b.
The renovation plan oscillated from the times of Angelina Wapakhabulo, then as Uganda’s High Commissioner to Kenya, until her retirement in January 2017; her successor Phoebe Otaala, who resigned in 2020 to contest in the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party primaries which she lost, to her successor Hassan Galiwango, who died in January last year.
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pulled ropes over the renovation, Nairobi City Council in 2019 directed that the property be renovated to meet the required standards of buildings in the city or be closed, upon which the plan gathered momentum.
Renovations commenced on June 20, 2022, with an initial completion date of December 19, 2023. However, the works were marred by delays stretching into the first quarter of 2024, while funds for the project were appropriated on the Mission capital expenditure budget for the Financial Year 2023/2024.
Four days to the commissioning, the commercial building caught fire, severely destroying the ground floors, according to diplomats in Nairobi.
In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Mr Vincent Bagiire, said the building “was vandalised and set ablaze” by rioters.
“Whereas we regret the said incident that led to the destruction of the property, we commend the Nairobi Fire Department for putting out the fire,” Mr Bagiire said.
However, it remained unclear how this conclusion was arrived at pending conclusive investigations by Kenyan authorities.
A Ugandan diplomat in Nairobi hinted at the possibility of a teargas canister fired by security personnel to disperse the protestors having slipped through the meshed gates of the ground floor and exploded inside, triggering a fire that later consumed the ground floor.
The first fire breakout, according to insiders, was contained by firefighters, but it flared up again in the night as the entire Nairobi was on tenterhooks and with no fire tender available.
Mr Bagiire detailed in the statement that the ground floor had been occupied by commercial tenants, while the other floors, including, the third floor, which previously housed the Consular Office, had been vacated to allow for renovations.
“While there is extensive damage to the property, we are grateful there are no reported fatalities or serious injuries that have been identified so far. It is also important to note that none of the Diplomatic or Consular staff were in the building at the time the fire broke out,” he said.
He added: “The government of Uganda would like to categorically state that our relations with the government, and indeed the people of the Republic of Kenya, remain solid. We support peaceful demonstrations as a democratic right but we condemn in the strongest terms, violence that leads to destruction of property and loss of lives.
We, therefore, call for calm, discourage unnecessary and unhelpful speculation and premature conclusions to allow for investigations into the matter.”
Asked about additional costs of renovation arising out of the fire, Mr Bagiire said last evening that the “building was under renovation and, therefore, still in the hands of the contractor, who has insurance cover.”
