KAMPALA – The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has criticised the government for investing in stopping opposition rallies instead of equipping the police to put out fires that are increasingly ravaging the country.
According to FDC president Patrick Amuriat, it is a shame that after 34 years in power, President Museveni’s government could not quickly put out a fire that gutted the Main Building at Makerere University, destroying a lot of sensitive documents.
“The Main Building, one of Makerere University oldest buildings that was completed in 1941 during the stewardship of Principal of Makerere College George C Turner had its rooftop and several floors housing Finance and Records Department burnt down.
A very big scandal and unfortunate incident in recent times,” Mr Amuriat said in a statement on Sunday.
He said if it was an opposition rally, the police would have rushed fast.
“Still disturbing that Ugandan government under dictator Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has put alot of resources in espionage to specifically detect peaceful demonstrations and has left the fire department of Uganda Police dilapidated with no capacity to fight fire even 4 Kilometres from its headquarters. It’s disheartening to believe that the Country has less than 10 fires brigade vehicles which are in bad condition and shape with low pressure that can’t push water upwards. Our government priorities are definitely known,” Mr Amuriat said.
“If this incident that took place in the wee hours of the night was a Political activity by the FDC or any kind of peaceful demonstration, security forces would have been in place before even the activity begins,” he added.
The FDC leader tasked the government to invest resources in modern fire fighting equipment, including helicopters, train more human resources and research in disaster detection, incidental reporting systems and post disaster recovery mechanisms and establish firefighting systems and hypersonic sensors on all buildings including permanent water source points as the case is in most modern Countries.
