Africa-Press – Uganda. Owners of buildings neighbouring a structure, which collapsed killing a worker and injuring two others at the weekend in Kisenyi, a city suburb, have accused the developer of carrying out excavations on their land and putting their lives in danger.
The structure owned by Mr Muhammed Katimbo, at the weekend caved in and buried three workers, who were carrying out excavation. One died and two others were admitted to hospital in critical condition.
The operations director of Murwana J. Peter Stores Limited, Mr Aimable Mbarushimana, said the developer, who is their neighbour, excavated beyond his plot, compromising the foundation of their structures.
“Kampala Capital City Authority told the developer to stop excavating beyond his plot, but the works have been going on until on Friday when the soil collapsed. Right now, we can’t access part of our plot because of the risk that it could cave in,” Mr Mbarushimana said yesterday.
He said two of their warehouses have been affected. “We used to store 1,000 metric tonnes in the two stores before the excavations started. Now, we can’t keep anything there because such weight will lead to the caving in of the soil,” he said.
KCCA says
The KCCA deputy executive director, Mr David Luyimbazi, told the Daily Monitor that the excavations pose danger to foundations of nearby buildings.
“It’s a deep excavation with a potential of collapsing any time because all sides are vertical deep foundations which are not safe,” Mr Luyimbazi said. “I have been told that [the construction at] this site was stopped, maybe because of being unsafe, but I am yet to establish the facts.”
Mr John Paul Kubana, who operates a business near the affected structure, alleged that such excavations are done by developers in Kisenyi as a way of forcing neighbours to sell land to them or fail businesses.
“Even if you own this land, you can’t get tenants when the structure they are going to operate in is near a deep excavation,” he said.
Developer says
However, Mr Katimbo denied carrying out excavations in his neighbours’ plots.
“The soil collapsed in the KCCA lane. They (KCCA) authorised me to carry out works there. I can’t talk to them (neighbours) right now until the investigations into the accident that happened over the week is done,” Mr Katimbo said yesterday.
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