Wednesday 26th April 2022 at around 10:00 AM saw News circulating about the Supreme court fire Outbreak. One of Uganda’s most highest Office caught fire leaving a number of people in fear of vital documents being destroyed.
Five things learnt:
1.Its not the first fire outbreak burning a major Government building.
In September 20th 2020 , a mysterious fir broke out in the “ Ivory Tower “part of Makerere University’s main building. The oldest University in East Africa and Africa saw its iconic building ablaze .This moved its vast number of Alumni all-over the world come out to react about the incident.
More recently, April 03rd 2022 fire burnt the Stores of the Ministry of Agriculture that is located along Buganda road in Wandegeya in Kampala .
The facility was used for storing different agrochemicals for weed control, animals and even spray pumps. A number of schools as well as markets have gone ahead to suffer the same peril – fire.
2.Reports on the cause of the fires not clear
Daily Monitor writes about a report that was made into the Makerere Fire Outbreak.
The report says “ the wrong system in the Main building could have been the source of the fire “ The word “ could” here means the report didn’t actually come to the real cause of the fire .
What so far is known about the cause of the fire in the supreme court is as a result of a malfunctioning conditioning system according to Jameson Karemani,the Judiciary Spokesperson. However, a conclusive report is expected to be made after farther concrete investigation.
3.More investment is needed in the Fire fighting department.
The Independent that during putting off the fire that gutted the Ministry of Agriculture , one of the Fire fighters said “ the facility didn’t have any fire extinguisher or nearby hydrant that would help in fire fighting.” It is surprising that a whole Government institution and department would fall short on readiness to fight power. The same applies for Makerere University.
The report findings about the cause of fire at Makerere said that “ the building’s electrical wiring was more than 30 years old.” In the same manner, the string of schools that were burnt, a number of them had no fire fighting equipment such as fire extinguishers.
There is need to not only sensitize the masses on fire fighting methods but also investing in the fire fighting department.Cases have been told of where a fire outbreak occurs, the fire fighting department is called only to reach too late. If they arrive early, their equipment can’t do much, at times they even run short of water.
4.Fires are set deliberately.
In the beginning of this year , around 18 incidents of fire occurred , majorly in Schools and markets. The Nilepost via Allafrica News writes of a Police preliminary report that suggests” that most of them have been deliberately set by unknown people.”
According to the report those who deliberately set the fires especially in schools are said to be Students who have been suspended from school and at times misunderstanding among school owners.
This conclusion comes basing on the fact that the school fires occurred mainly when Students were out of the dormitories during lunch or supper. An implication that some one times that students are out and then sets the fire.
5.Documents may be the target.
James Karemani , the Judiciary Spokesperson says “ no court files was affected by fire” , as reported by The Observer .
This is in contrast to what certain sources on condition of anonymity told The Observer that some files outside the chief Justice’s offices were actually damaged.
A section of Ugandan while reacting about the incident on various Social Media channels such as Twitter voiced the belief that perhaps the fire was meant to destroy some vital documents. This same belief was also held when Makerere Ivory Tower got burnt with a number of key documents destroyed despite some being stored digitally.