JINJA – One person sustained serious injuries when a two-storey building under construction as an extension of the Jinja city-based Speke Courts Hotel collapsed on Monday night.
Eyewitnesses said that the building collapsed at around 7:00pm as casual labourers were finalising the day’s duty.
One of the workers at the hotel revealed, on condition of anonymity, that there were six casual labourers on-site at the time of the accident – with one sustaining severe injuries, and was admitted at an undisclosed private health facility within Jinja; three reportedly fled the scene; but the two others couldn’t be, readily traced.
Edward Musisi – a resident in the neighbourhood narrated that he observed as the building broke down but couldn’t do much – due to the narrow access route through the hotel’s accommodation area to the actual accident scene. Sources said that the hotel’s top managers would address the media about the incident on Tuesday.
Police were yet to excavate the accident scene to ascertain whether some people were still trapped under the rubble.
Morris Niyonzima – the Officer In charge of Jinja Central Police Station said they had started recording statements from the hotel managers about the incident.
He said detectives had tasked the hotel managers to account for the casual labourers on site, at the time of the accident.
He also said they had cordoned off the scene to deter illegal access and possible contamination. Twaha Gishebi – the Budondo ward councillor, who doubles as the Jinja City Finance Secretary, suspects that the accident could have resulted from the use of poor-quality materials.
