Mukono town clerk, 3 engineers arrested for authorising use of condemned building

Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mukono town clerk Richard K Monday and Engineer Joash Sserunjogi are in trouble for authorizing the use of a condemned building housing one of the biggest supermarkets on its first and second floor.

The duo was picked up on the orders of Geoffrey Kaheebwa, the Officer in-Charge of Operations in the National Building Review Board-NBRB which is under the Works and Transport Ministry.

Kaheebwa, who was accompanied by Asha Arinda, the Officer in Charge of Compliance Monitoring and other engineers also picked up the site Engineers, Kenneth Ssekasala, Ben Kizito and Jackson Twijukye, the proprietor of the building housing Paris corner supermarket that is found at Mukono-Jinja-Bugerere junction.

He told journalists that they swung in action after receiving information that the condemned building was functional.

The affected building was closed in late April this year. The Mukono Municipal Engineer Sserunjogi recommended the closure of the supermarket to avoid exposing the lives of the workers and customers in danger.

He instructed the site engineers to underpin the inside part of the building saying the beams are strong enough to support the upper three floors. However, the NBRB halted the process before the plans were submitted to their council for review.

To their surprise, the supermarket re-opened and construction work resumed with NRBB approval. Jackson Twijukye, the proprietor of the building denied any blame saying the town clerk and the municipal engineer are fully aware of the ongoing works.

Arinda also a senior structural engineer noted that apart from reopening the building without authorisation, the builders didn’t exhibit any professionalism at the site. Engineer Jerome Stowell Olowo a member of NBRB notes that the building lacks architects to guide changes which are visible at the site.

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