Police have kicked off investigations into a mysterious fire that destroyed important documents in the Mbale Resident City Commissioner's (RCC) office on Christmas night.
The Mbale RCC John Rex Achila said that among the documents destroyed in the fire were confidential files, operating licences for some non-governmental organisations and other papers.
Achila sought to reassure the public that not all the documents were destroyed in the fire which seems to have been deliberately set. He said that, for example, documents in the filing cabinets had remained intact. He went on, "As security offices, we don't keep sensitive documents in our offices. We know where to keep them. There were just operational documents."
Achila discovered the ruins when he turned up on Boxing Day to look for some documents in his office.
Elgon Region Police Spokes person Rogers Taitika said the force would review footage from CCTV to ascertain who could have been behind the fire. The RCC's office sits at the regional block that also hosts the regional security offices. The block is on Republic Street in Mbale city. The same block also houses the regional immigration offices, just opposite City Council offices.
Taitika ruled out the possibility of the fire being caused by a short circuit because all the cables and sockets were intact and switched off.
