By Keefa Nuwahereza
An inferno that burned down the Makerere University main building popularly known as Ivory Tower on Saturday night has left properties worth hundreds of millions of shillings destroyed.
Although it is not yet clear what caused the fire outbreak, eyewitnesses at the scene revealed to this website that the inferno broke out a few minutes past 1:00Pm and by the time the Police Fire brigade reached the scene several offices had been burnt down by the fire.
Saasi Marvin, a student at MUK wrote thus on social media about the incident; “Since 1am up to now (4:06 AM), the main building of Africa’s 5th best University – Makerere University – located in the heart of Kampala City, is still on fire. This 3-storied building houses offices of the Vice Chancellor; Bursar; University Secretary; Directorate of Human Resources, etc as well as the Main Hall.
In its basement lies the Souvenir Shop and the Printery from where grad books etc are printed. The fire brigade is barely trying to put out the fire because it’s clearly ill-equipped and overwhelmed. This is the price WE pay for tolerating corrupt and incompetent leadership!”
However, commenting about the same incident, MUK Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe tweeted thus;
“It is a very dark morning for Makerere University. Our iconic Main Administration Building caught fire and the destruction is unbelievable. But we are determined to restore the building to its historic state in the shortest time possible.”
By the time of filing this article the police had deployed heavily at Makerere University to protect what is remaining in the building by preventing outsiders from looting property as investigations continue.
We shall keep you updated as details come in.