Kampala — THE police in Kampala are holding two men suspected of manufacturing fake cement. Robert Rwekwema, the director of Royal Tech Services, a company based in Mutungo, Nakawa division and his employee, Mark Ssembera, were taken to Jinja Road Police Station on Saturday.

The officer in charge of criminal investigations at the Police station, Herbert Wanyoto, said: "We acted on a tip-off by our informers. We have discovered that the suspects operated in a home with no protective gear, risking their lives."

The Police reportedly found the suspects with packing and sealing machines, empty bags, electronic cables, a sieve, weighing scale and a digital computing scale.

They also had raw materials, such as 94 bags of silt sand, 10 bags of multi-purpose cement, aluminum sulphate and polyvinyl, which are thought to be used in making cement.

Wanyoto disclosed that the Police also impounded over 60 bags of the cement and 26 bags of grout. Grout star is a waterproof compound that contains jordan, carbonates, cement and silicon. It is used in tile finishing.

Wanyoto said after investigations, the two would be charged with three counts of manufacturing counterfeit cement, forging logos and trademarks.

He also explained that their certificate of operation had a lot of inconsistencies, adding that they would first seek clarification from the Uganda National Bureau of Standards before an additional forgery and uttering false documents charge is added on them.

The bureau attributed the collapse of several buildings in the country last year to the use of fake construction materials.

Several attempts have been made to curb the trade in fake cement.

Operations by the bureau and the Police have led to the confiscation of over 1,300 bags of fake cement and over 10,000 empty bags from shops on Entebbe Road and Kisenyi-Mengo in the last two years.