Section of Grand Imperial Hotel collapses
KCCA’s supervisor building management, Mr Moses Happy Were, together with Police officers close Didi’s dining hall yesterday. PHOTO BY Faiswal Kasirye.
Kampala
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has sealed off a section of Grand Imperial Hotel along Nile Avenue in Kampala after the floor of one of its dining rooms caved in.
Clients who were having dinner in Didi’s dining scampered when tiles cracked, with the resultant fissure leaving a gaping hole.
While the hotel remained tight lipped about the incident, a survivor who took a photograph, leaked it to the KCCA authorities leading to yesterday afternoon’s raid on the hotel. At 12:13pm yesterday, KCCA enforcement officers and police officers stormed the facility owned by property mogul, Karim Hirji.
The team led by the authority’s security manager, Mr Moses Rusoke Kituuma, served a female manager on duty, whose name could not be immediately established a “search demand notice.” She led them to the dining hall where two workers were ferrying sand and bricks for supposed renovation.
Mr Denis Omodi, the KCCA sanitation supervisor, said they were responding to a tip of the collapse of part of the hotel. “If we inspect and find that the situation is worse than we thought, we shall close the entire hotel,” Mr Omodi stated.
However, Mr Badru Berisa, the hotel’s maintenance engineer said KCCA was blowing the situation out of proportion. “This is something small, there is nothing big. The timber sunk in and the tiles had cracks. It is that simple,” Mr Berisa said.
