The politics of fire outbreaks

Eleven people were injured after an explosion at the Kampala depot for Vivo Energy Uganda on 7th Street in Namuwongo on Wednesday.
Only a few days before that, there was a fire outbreak in Kakajjo Zone, Kisenyi, leading to the death of one person and the destruction of plenty of property. 
Two weeks prior to that fire, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago accused the Uganda Police of failure to reveal the findings of their previous investigations into fire outbreaks in schools and other public institutions around the country. 
Lukwago’s accusation came hot on the heels, pun unintended, of an incident where four pupils were burnt to death and three others injured after a dormitory caught fire at Kibedi Day and Boarding Primary School in Kawempe Division, Kampala.  
Again, in Kasese, a fire broke out at the Hima Cement factory two weeks ago claiming three lives and injuring eight others. The company’s chief executive officer, Jean-Michel Pons, said the fire erupted during installation works at one of their oil tanks. It destroyed property worth millions of shillings.
With his eye firmly on his rear-view mirror, Lukwago looked back at these incidents and said it is unfortunate that after police conducted investigations into past fires, no conclusive or comprehensive reports have been produced for the public. 
“It’s sad to see that after almost two years of having schools closed due to Covid-19, we have lost five pupils, four at Kibedi Primary School in Kawempe and one at St John’s Primary School in Kyotera as a result of fire gutting their dormitories,” said Lukwago. 
Lukwago added that it is important that police unearths the causes of these “ferocious fire outbreaks” and reports be made on what are the causes or who is to blame. 
Over the years, there have been many fires in schools across the country with the most memorable being the tragic fire that happened in April 2008, when a Budo Primary School dormitory caught fire and 20 children burnt to death. 
In September 2020, a fire also gutted the main building at Makerere University, known as the “Ivory Tower”, as an overnight blaze left building’s distinctive white walls with blue-shuttered windows in black ruins.
Fires are a frightfully routine feature of urban life. It is hardly surprising, then, to discover that in the 1st Century BC, the Roman orator and statesman Cicero classified fires among the great perils of Roman life. Similarly, the poet Horace said what wealthy Romans feared most: theft and fires.
The fires consuming Uganda in the last few weeks are thus something normal, in and of themselves. However, when we begin to ask questions about these fires we realise, as Lukwago does, that there is cause for concern.
That’s because police are quick to put out political fires, throwing all resources into making sure that they do not happen and, when they do, they are quickly extinguished. 
So when the leader of People’s Front for Transition and four-time presidential       candidate, Dr Warren Kizza Besigye, vowed to carry out nationwide protests recently, the police were quick to respond. 
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said security agencies have intelligence information regarding Besigye’s plans to reactivate Power 10, an                         insurrectionist task force, adding that “the Public Order Management Act is still in place.”
It is a pity the primacy of politics has shunted every other governmental consideration to the sidelines, including the prevention of fire outbreaks. 
As a consequence, non-political fires are ignored in favour political fires. 
These non-political fires then continue to spread until the fires of dissent over government’s dereliction of duty ultimately leads to a revolutionary fire.
Mr Matogo is a professional copywriter  
[email protected]