At least 8 people are reportedly killed when a six-storey building still under construction collapsed near Makerere University in Kampala, eyewitnesses say.

A Makerere University student told EagleOnline the Kyaseka Towers a commercial building along Makerere Hill road after Ham Shopping Mall but before Makerere College School female hostels collapsed on Monday afternoon after the owners had added floors despite lacking a permit from authorities, which had sealed off the site – a common problem in Kampala surburbs where law enforcement is weak.

Good Samaritans initially put the death toll at five, but by press time Police were reportedly pulling out more victims from the rubble.

The building site had been inhabited by boutique owners on the ground floor.

“After they (the owners) finished building the house, rain fell and the house shifted a bit. They put iron in front of the house (but) the iron couldn’t hold the house,” said a man formerly working on the site to an eyewitness.

“They left it like that and continued building.”

More details to follow …

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The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leadership in Kasese district led by the LC V Chairman-elect Kasese district Geoffrey Sibendire Bigogo has rejected the idea of the demand and formation of the ‘Yiira Republic’.

Speaking at a meeting between the FDC leadership of the district and President Yoweri Museveni at Mweya Safari Lodge in Kasese district, Mr Bigogo said that they are ready to work together with the NRM government to bring about peace and development in Kasese district in particular and Uganda in general.

This follows allegations that there is a scheme by the Bayiira of Uganda and those in the Democratic Republic of Congo to break away from their nations and form their own State called Bayiira.

President Museveni blamed some of the so-called prophets who instead of positively guiding the youth, mislead them by using witchcraft to fight for the so-called Yiira Republic.

“The earlier it is clear to everybody the better,” he cautioned.

He warned of dangerous repercussions from the Congo side in-case they press ahead to demand for the Yiira state adding that it will also cause unnecessary friction between the two governments of Uganda and that of the DRC.

Museveni advised them to instead work positively to create unity among the people at home as well as those living across the borders who have similar linkages and advise them to rout-out the ADF’s and the Interhamwe’s for everlasting peace to prevail in the area.

President Museveni rubbished allegations that NRM is marginalizing the Bayiira in Uganda adding that under the NRM government the population in Kasese has increased from 190,000 in 1994 to 700,000 now, something he attributed to a successful immunization programme in the country.

“Socio-economic problems are now cropping up including in Kasese. Now some false prophets come in to take advantage of peoples’ problems they have not bothered to solve. They say the Bayiira are suffering, those in DRC are being killed and Mugurusi Museveni does not care for the ones in Uganda because he is part of the Hima-Tutsi Empire. But I am the one who has increased the Bayiira for the first time in four million years. The population of Kasese was 190,000 in the CA elections of 1994.The population now is 700,000.Who has increased the population? Museveni. The Bayiira you are talking about are my Bayiira and they have increased because of my work,” he pointed out.

President Museveni earlier reminded the FDC leadership of the role of leaders at all levels of getting people out of poverty through adopting modern commercial farming especially in the rural areas.

He emphasized the issue of enterprise selection coupled with thorough calculation for better results.

Responding to some of their concerns President Museveni defended what some FDC leaders called unnecessary arrests adding that there is incriminating evidence against some of the culprits arrested.

President Museveni also clarified on the absence of the Minister of Defense Dr Crispus Kiyonga, who is undergoing treatment after being operated three times in South Africa. Dr Kiyonga hails from the region.

“I didn’t know that Dr Kiyonga was sick, because I was looking for him. I only talked to his wife because he had just been brought out of the operation theatre,” he said.

Later the FDC leadership reiterated their stand of working together with NRM government for peace and development, and also denounced ‘some people who want to use the cultural institution to cause problems within the region and in the DRC’.

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President Yoweri Museveni has urged Ugandans to treat murder, promotion of any form of sectarianism and maintaining backwardness.

President Museveni, who is on a four-day working visit in Rwenzori region, made the remarks while meeting leaders of Bughendera county in Bundibugyo district today at Fort Portal State Lodge.

President Museveni said that the National Resistance Movement has always opposed sectarianism and extrajudicial murders and warned that the government will not tolerate those promoting the two vices.

“Sectarianism, extrajudicial murders and backwardness have been Movement taboos and anyone promoting them today is our number one enemy. I was in the Democratic Party but I had to leave the party because the party exercised  sectarianism and I left to join the Uganda People’s Congress but sectarianism had done great damage to the country that the post independence government collapsed four years after independence,” he said.

He said that the Movement will not therefore discuss matters of extrajudicial murder with criminals but will have to handle them in accordance with the law.

Museveni expressed disappointment that Ugandans and the Movement is degenerating from the core principles on which the National Resistance Movement was founded.

“Issues of criminality and murder are resolved by the constitution of Uganda and even God’s laws are against murder. I think we misled you by being too soft on some of you who made mistakes in the past but we thought some of you were committing crimes out ignorance but I think it has gone out of hand. How do you kill someone for voting in a certain way? Then what is democracy for and what did the NRM fight for? ” he said.

The President said they will deal with the criminals decisively.

“We shall deal with them decisively. We have done it Karamoja against the advice of the opposition politicians who said that we should talk to the Karamajong cattle rustlers who were killing people. We must make it clear that killing in Uganda is out of question,” the President said.

He also warned against mixing traditional and cultural leadership with political leadership and administrations, saying some of the problems in the Rwenzori region are because some players are mixing the two.

He said that although the NRM government allowed the reinstatement of cultural institutions in parts of Uganda they must operate in accordance with the Constitution.

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