KAMPALA – The Uganda Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga has revealed that two suspects have been arrested in relation to the Makerere University main building fire.
Enanga while addressing the media on September 21,2020 said a police officer and a security guard who were supposed to be on duty that night were arrested for allegedly absconding duty.
“By time of response, fire had spread to the roof which implies the security at main building was absent or could have absconded from duty for them to fail to realise smoke coming out from the building,”Enanga told journalists on Monday .
According to Enanga, the security guard was sleeping in his room adding that his presence could have saved the building.
“The private security guard was asleep the whole night. When our officers (who arrived later) tried to knock and open his door, he was asleep and took him hours to wake up,” he said.
He added that the police officer claimed he was on duty however investigations indicated otherwise.
In a related development, Enanga said they obtained CCTV footage from the University library that will be reviewed to see events that preceded the fire outbreak.
“We have also reviewed CCTV footage from the Library which will be analysed further,” he said.
He revealed that to date, the cause of the fire is still unknown.
“Our team from the forensic services, Umeme Kawempe branch, risky assessment team from Kampala capital city Authority (KCCA) will soon be on ground to take samples to establish the cause of fire,” he said.
The entire right hand side of the building from where the fire started, that houses offices for the Finance Department, University secretary’s office, deputy vice chancellor administration and finance, central registry where , audit offices, pension offices, salary offices and human resource office were burnt in the Saturday night fire.
The other Ivory Tower structure that initially had not been affected by the fire, also got burnt on Sunday evening after the fire brigade had left the scene.
This, according to Enanga was caused by the heat from the walls that may have not been cooled.
