The fire outbreak that
brought-down several timber cottages in Moroto Municipality last week should
send a message to authorities. The
message that the world is moving forward and ‘city’ centers shouldn’t be taken
for granted.
Can they authorize
reasonable developers to take up these spots, plots and ensure credible
structures with plans approved by municipal engineers replace the wooden shacks
currently dominating this street? Apparently, occupants of the burnt structures
are mere business gamblers and they built hovels with rotten wood in a prime
land at the heart of town.
Apart from the fact
that these temporal and crowded wooden kiosks make the town really look clumzy,
they are also hideouts for some very devious characters. Criminals, idlers and committed
drug addicts hibernate in these places. Most of these goons play a role or two
to the masquerading venders who seemingly claim ownership of these places.
For starters, these Country
dwellers are most times behind such mysterious fires. We have seen such before.
We have seen several times in St Balikudembe (Owino) market in Kampala. We have
heard a lot of it in schools; and with innocent children dying in some. Normally,
the people behind such fires never get caught. Why? Because they are
unbelievable! How can you hold an insane man accountable for instance? In the
end, investigators simply zero their findings to something far away from the
truth; -just for purposes of producing the required report by a fellow relaxed
government authority taxed to inquire, period!
Another terrible group that should be checked right away are the electricity power thieves. They will kill us all if our eyes are closed. About a fortnight ago in Matany Sub County, Napak District, the UMEME guys cut off electricity power connection because of this group. It emerged that some three wise men from Bugishu-land were earning a living out of power ‘theft by wisdom’. They would charge a paltry amount and fix the consumers on free power lines.
The three would simply
throw a connection up the main live wire without bondage to any power measuring
gadget. They got popular and rich within a month as people would now contact
them (not UMEME) when their paid units got done. Thus, several illegal-risky
connections were commonplace in Matany ‘town board’ until UMEME people
discovered that most meters were actually not running, yet everyone had power.
They accordingly cut off connections to Matany until the three wise men were
identified, threatened and advised.
Back to Moroto and to
Camp Swahili where the fire sampled the Kiosks. Who knows if the Kiosks’
managers were not applying skills of the three wise men to tap free power.
Let’s ask ourselves a simple question. What kind of structures does UMEME
recommend for electricity power connection and do they do the wiring of
structures by themselves? Apparently, most of the Shacks that got burnt had
electricity. Most of them are normally flooded badly when rain falls but they
also had naked wire connections. Boy, wouldn’t this equally be a possibility
for mysterious burning?
In my view, the Municipal council should now wake up from sleep and chat a quick, prudent, workable and strict development way forward for the Municipality. They can get a loan from Centenary Bank to develop such mismanaged plots. This would earn reasonable revenue. Alternatively, lease out these plots to serious developers and set a timeline for them to put up smart structures whose plans are approved by the municipal engineer. This would help shut up the shacks idlers and save the town from risks of losing innocent lives and property. Anyway this is my own opinion, - over to you people who matter.
