Conan Businge
1 July 2009
Kampala — THE UGANDA National Bureau of Standards has confiscated 450 bags of fake cement. Officials confirmed yesterday that the 22,500kg of cement, seized from a make-shift building in Kampala on Sunday, is fake.
"Preliminary tests show that the cement we confiscated was indeed adulterated," said Moses Ssebunya, the public relations officer.
He said the agency, which acted on a tip-off, worked together with the Police to seize the cement from Mengo-Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb.
Three suspects, including Dennis Gombe, were detained at the Old Kampala Police Station. "We are initiating criminal proceedings against them," Ssebunya explained.
Uganda's construction industry has grown fast in recent years and so has the demand for construction materials.
Finding durable and cost-effective materials has become a thorny issue for many constructors since fraudsters have started selling sub-standard goods.
Last year, about 850 bags of fake cement and 10,000 empty bags were seized from shops on Entebbe Road in Kampala, according to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.
The empty bags from cement manufacturing companies were used to mix the fake cement, said Ssebunya.
Several attempts have been made to curb the trade in fake cement.
The Uganda National Bureau of Standards launched Operation Q in 2004, which recovered 100 bags of counterfeit cement from a 'factory' in Kakejje zone in Makindye, a suburb of Kampala.
The bureau said fake cement was made by adding clay, ash and sand. Other materials that look like cement can also be added. One bag of legitimate cement can be converted into two bags of adulterated cement.
The standards agency says fake cement is one of the factors contributing to the collapse of buildings in the country.
Several building sites have caved in in recent years, killing dozens.
In March, two people died and several were injured when part of Mirembe Shopping Arcade collapsed due to an excavation on an adjacent construction site on Nasser Road, Kampala.
Early last year, a four-storey building at St. Peter's Secondary School, Naalya, collapsed, killing 11 people.
The worst disaster took place in 2005 when the City of the Lord Church in Kalerwe collapsed during a heavy downpour, killing 28 people and wounding 100 others.
A year earlier, a hotel construction site collapsed on Entebbe Road, crushing 12 workers and injuring another 25.
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