KCCA gives commercial buildings 60 day ultimatum

By Juliet Waiswa

KAMPALA commercial building owners have been given an ultimatum of 60 days to have their structures repainted and rehabilitate their buildings, to avoid closure of their businesses, the director of physical planning at the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Moses Atwine has revealed.

Over 100 commercial building owners, who were served with a notice to pave, paint and renovate their structures, in a meeting with KCCA physical planning officials were given standards that they need to follow before carrying out any repairs.

“By close of October every building in Kampala which was served with a notice of closure for poor rehabilitation and painting will be closed if the owners fail to comply with the KCCA directive,” Atwine said.

Atwine explained that commercial buildings in the city should have pavers at the entrances, proper toilets, water, solid waste collectors, and parking space among others.

The move by KCCA comes at a time when the country prepares to host the Pope in November. 

KCCA intends to remove all hoardings around buildings, incomplete structures and abandoned sites for which erection permits have expired.

According to Atwine owners of these buildings and illegal structures were first warned and given 28 days to comply.

He added that those who will not have complied risk their premises being closed demolished or owners prosecuted in accordance with the relevant laws.

Commercial building owners have also been asked to place garbage bins at all their premises, which will be collected by commercial garbage collectors while private residences and commercial premises are to use authorized garbage and solid waste collectors for proper disposal.

Owners of some structures however blamed KCCA for not keeping their promises of keeping Kampala dust free saying KCCA delay in issuing rehabilitation permits.

“KCCA closes our buildings yet some of the faults on the buildings are caused by service providers, like Uganda Telecom, MTN, National Water and Sewerage Cooperation among other service providers,” Hanifa Kalungi, one of the city landlords said.

Kalungi also said that KCCA delays issuing renovating permits and building plans, for their structures.

KCCA declared 50 buildings in Kampala dirty and unkempt and need to be painted and reroofed by owners.