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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fire has gutted Buganda Land Board Offices in Luweero town destroying vital documents and computers. The fire is believed to have broken out at 5:30am on Tuesday morning in the office containing key documents before it spread to other offices.
Charles Ssenteza, a private security guard at the offices told URN that he noticed the fire at around 5:30am and rushed to the police station to call fire brigade. Ssenteza says the fire brigade team arrived at 6:30am and found the computers and documents reduced to ashes.
Staff of Buganda Land Board rushed to the offices to save documents but found most of them burnt to ash. Paul Kangave, the Savannah Region Police Spokesperson, says investigators have established that fire was caused by a percolator that was left boiling water and ran dry before exploding.
Kangave says the fire spread to documents and computers and destroyed the ceiling of the offices. Mworoozi Byaruhanga, the Luweero District Police Commander, says Police managed to put off the fire and stopped it from spreading to district offices.
He faulted Buganda Land Board for failure to install fire extinguishers for emergencies.
Charles Kasujja, the Luweero Branch Manager Buganda Land Board declined to comment on the fire, saying he isn’t authorized to speak to the media. David Bugaya, the spokesperson Buganda Land Board, says there is no alarm, since the burnt documents are backed up at their headquarters.
Bugaya says they have suspended operations at the offices until till Friday to give Police time to investigate the cause of the fire. The burnt offices shares premises with Luweero district workshop, which houses road equipment.
The office manages kingdom land in Nakaseke, Nakasongola and Luweero districts. The fire outbreak has exposed security gaps at the Workshop after it emerged the same ill equipped guard is in charge of protecting road equipment worth billions of Shillings.
Police has since directed Luweero District to hire competent private guards or seek help from Police
