ISO probes UTL fire, fears internal sabotage

Kampala.

The Internal Security Organisation (ISO) has launched an investigation into the mysterious fire suspected to have been the work of internal sabotage, which gutted Uganda Telecom building in the wee hours of Sunday night last week.
The fire destroyed a multi-million power section on Speke Road in Kampala, leaving nearly 200 batteries in ruins.
The Director General of ISO, Col Frank Bagyenda, confirmed the investigations.
“I am aware the investigations are ongoing, but I cannot give details,” Col Bagyenda told Daily Monitor.
Our sources said after receiving an intelligence brief on what is believed to be “a plot to burn UTL offices” and perhaps frustrate government efforts to revamp UTL, President Museveni ordered Col Bagyenda to investigate the cause of the blaze, claims of internal sabotage and motive of the attackers.
The cause of the fire is still unknown and the mystery was made more complex after UTL officials reported that their fire detecting system failed because the switch to the alarm had been ‘tampered with’ and the security guards at Telephone House were suspiciously absent at the time the inferno broke out.
The battery room is next to the entry gate which is guarded full-time but that night, the guards of SPC Protectorate, a private security firm, were absent.
Officials of UTL told ISO investigators that only the SPC Protectorate supervisor identified as Kefa Wagidoso was at the scene of the inferno and did not detect the fire until Bank of Uganda security guards called in the Police Fire Brigade to dowse the blaze.
Although UTL had also petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, to inquire into the cause of the fire and suspected internal sabotage, sources told Daily Monitor that the President preferred ISO to lead the investigation.
The ISO investigators have already interrogated UTL officials and have now moved on to SPC Protectorate guards, Bank of Uganda guards, officers at the police post at Post Office and the people who took CCTV cameras for repair a few days before the inferno and those who called UTL engineer to Mengo.
The CCTV cameras had been taken away for repair just two days to the inferno. Therefore when the fire broke out, there was no footage to provide a clue on how it started.
Since UTL managers suspect sabotage, they have written to Col Bagyenda and Gen Kayihura to investigate the cause of the fire and possibly arrest the suspects.
It is not readily clear whether the inferno was an act of sabotage but the above incidents do not suggest it was coincidence either.
The UTL administrator, Mr Bemanya Twebaze, at the weekend confirmed the inferno but declined to divulge details, insisting that the matter is sensitive and a subject of investigation.
“The only thing I can tell you now is that there was a fire outbreak at our headquarters in Kampala…Luckily, the building survived but we lost a number of batteries,” Mr Bemanya said.
He could neither confirm nor rule out the fire was a handiwork of corrupt government officials who wanted to devalue UTL assets before the President blocked their scheme.
“I do not know that, but we suspect sabotage and we have written to ISO and the Inspector General of Police, requesting for full investigations into the fire. We await the outcome of these investigations. In the meantime, we have beefed up our security at all our installations,” Mr Bemanya said.
He said UTL’s response to the fire outbreak was prompt and saved the building from further damage.
“The zeal and dedication of our highly motivated team at UTL reacted quickly regardless of the time to ensure that what was affected was restored immediately. We replaced the batteries and restored services. There was minimal effect and our customers were not affected,” he said. However, Daily Monitor learnt that UTL company lost more than Shs200m to the fire.
Security sources said UTL officials told ISO investigators that before the fire, the company had written to all government agencies, reminding them of the President’s directive requiring them to procure Internet and telephone services from UTL, but some agencies, which they did not name, were still reluctant to comply.
The fire is believed to have broken out at 3am, shortly after UTL power engineer only identified as Mr Arafat, who was on duty at Telephone House on Speke Road, left the office to attend to an emergency call from the alternate switching centre in Mengo.
The engineer received a call that there was a high temperature alarm in the equipment room that required his attention.
However, no sooner had the engineer left Telephone House for Mengo, than guards at Bank of Uganda saw smoke coming out of the UTL building and called in the Police Fire Brigade.
Last year, police assigned SP Charles Obella to beef up security at UTL but before the fire incident, he informed UTL managers that he had been redeployed at Parliament without provision for his replacement.
The seven private guards did not detect the fire that destroyed UTL battery bank even as it emerged that their supervisor, Mr Wagidoso was coincidentally around the building area where the fire broke out.
However, sources say he later informed UTL Network Operations Centre team about the fire.
Mr Wagidoso said he was the one who reported the fire to a nearby police post at Post Office.
“I found smoke coming out of the building by the entrance side when I reached there at about 2:40am to supervise the guards. My guard called Namisi who was at the entrance told me he has was trying to find contacts of the Fire Brigade but in vain. So I went to Post Office Police Post to report. I came back to UTL with a police officer who called in the Fire Brigade,” Mr Wagidoso said at the weekend.