JINJA – Police have confirmed four people who died in Jinja building in Jinja Municipality that collapsed on January 15, 2020.
According to the Deputy Police Spokesperson ACP Polly Namaye, the building complex which was still under construction is estimated to have had close to 32 workers on the site at the time of its collapse.
“Twelve people have been recovered from the debris and admitted at Jinja referral hospital,” she said in a statement.
She added that “Four bodies have so far been retrieved and taken to Jinja hospital for post-mortem and hand over to relatives for burial. They have been identified as; Isabirye Joseph 20 years, Muhofa Denis 29 years, Sadi Balaba 18 years, and Akiram Bosco 22 years all casual laborers.”
Namaye noted that the rescue operation is still on-going with the hope of finding any more people who could still be trapped alive under the rubble and help them to access emergency treatment.
“The exact number of people who are still missing has not yet been established. According to some survivors, some workers managed to escape from the collapsing building,” she wrote.
She re-assured the public that rescue efforts will continue until the team is sure that there are no more people trapped under the rubble.
Namaye said, “We have intensified efforts to locate and question the site engineer, as well as the site supervisor. The investigation is also analyzing critically the building materials used in this construction project to establish whether they are of a standard quality not or if the construction itself was shoddily done.”
She added that they requested for a technical report from the municipal engineer as the investigation into this matter continues.
