‘Kasubi tombs staff were disgruntled’
Dec 06, 2010
KASUBI Tombs employees were unhappy due to poor management years before the World Heritage Site burnt down, the commission probing the burning of the tombs heard yesterday.
By Francis Kagolo
KASUBI Tombs employees were unhappy due to poor management years before the World Heritage Site burnt down, the commission probing the burning of the tombs heard yesterday.
In March, a fire, whose cause is still being investigated, gutted the mausoleum, where four of Buganda’s former kings; Mutesa I, Mwanga, Daudi Chwa and Mutesa II were buried.
Paul Musiitwa, the chief guard at the tombs since 2001, said several staff, especially the women, had become disgruntled due to alleged financial mismanagement by the tombs’ chief caretaker, Naalinnya Beatrice Namikka.
He told the commission that Namikka had appointed her daughter, whom he identified only as Allen, as the cashier, while her son, Muloodi, would deliver the day’s collections to her every evening.
Musiitwa also reported that Namikka paid the staff peanuts, yet alot of money was being collected from tourists.
The tombs’ annual collections never fell below sh350m, he said, yet Namikka paid workers between sh4,000 and sh5,000 a day.
“The ladies that stay there should benefit from the revenue from the tourists. But even when they fell sick, she (Namikka) never bothered to take them to hospital,†Musiitwa told the seven-man probe team chaired by justice Steven George Engwau.
He also attributed the fire to persistent conflicts among the workers.
“If there were no conflicts, our bosses would have heeded to prophesies,†he said.
Musiitwa also blamed the Katikkiro (deputy in command at the tombs), George Herbert Mulumba, 61, of always fueling in-house conflicts instead of trying to resolve them.
Musiitwa, who doubles as a diviner and foreteller at the tombs, believes that the powerful Buganda gods “did not stop the incident because they were angry with the managers of the tombsâ€.
He said he had prophesied that the tombs would get burnt a year earlier.
He also said two other diviners had foretold the calamity.
“When I told the Namikka to buy fire detectors and boost security at the site, she just quarrelled. I told her to get four policemen and pay each at least sh20,000 every morning. She refused. She thought I wanted to make profit out of it.â€
He said due to the absence of a perimeter fence and failure to improve security, the premises, which sit on 64 acres of land, had long ago become a den for criminals.
KASUBI Tombs employees were unhappy due to poor management years before the World Heritage Site burnt down, the commission probing the burning of the tombs heard yesterday.
In March, a fire, whose cause is still being investigated, gutted the mausoleum, where four of Buganda’s former kings; Mutesa I, Mwanga, Daudi Chwa and Mutesa II were buried.
Paul Musiitwa, the chief guard at the tombs since 2001, said several staff, especially the women, had become disgruntled due to alleged financial mismanagement by the tombs’ chief caretaker, Naalinnya Beatrice Namikka.
He told the commission that Namikka had appointed her daughter, whom he identified only as Allen, as the cashier, while her son, Muloodi, would deliver the day’s collections to her every evening.
Musiitwa also reported that Namikka paid the staff peanuts, yet alot of money was being collected from tourists.
The tombs’ annual collections never fell below sh350m, he said, yet Namikka paid workers between sh4,000 and sh5,000 a day.
“The ladies that stay there should benefit from the revenue from the tourists. But even when they fell sick, she (Namikka) never bothered to take them to hospital,†Musiitwa told the seven-man probe team chaired by justice Steven George Engwau.
He also attributed the fire to persistent conflicts among the workers.
“If there were no conflicts, our bosses would have heeded to prophesies,†he said.
Musiitwa also blamed the Katikkiro (deputy in command at the tombs), George Herbert Mulumba, 61, of always fueling in-house conflicts instead of trying to resolve them.
Musiitwa, who doubles as a diviner and foreteller at the tombs, believes that the powerful Buganda gods “did not stop the incident because they were angry with the managers of the tombsâ€.
He said he had prophesied that the tombs would get burnt a year earlier.
He also said two other diviners had foretold the calamity.
“When I told the Namikka to buy fire detectors and boost security at the site, she just quarrelled. I told her to get four policemen and pay each at least sh20,000 every morning. She refused. She thought I wanted to make profit out of it.â€
He said due to the absence of a perimeter fence and failure to improve security, the premises, which sit on 64 acres of land, had long ago become a den for criminals.