Eng. January Silangi Mugaye, the Kanungu District Engineer, has gone missing after Kankoko Bridge along the Kihembe–Butogota–Bwindi Road in Kihembe Sub-county collapsed just three months after it was completed.
The bridge, located in Kanyashande Village, Nyabirehe Parish, Kihembe Sub-county, was constructed by the Kanungu District Works Department at a cost of 40 million shillings. However, a large section of the bridge gave way last week after rain fell in the area.
Denis Tumukunde, the LCIII Chairperson of Kihembe Sub-county, says local welcomed the bridge construction, expecting it to solve the long-standing challenge of crossing Kankoko River.
Tumukunde says they were left shocked when the rains last week caused a large section of the newly constructed bridge to collapse. He noted that the incident has once again disrupted transport in the area, and the bridge is also at risk of collapsing. He blamed the incident on shoddy workmanship.
Julius Tumugabirwe, the district councillor representing Kihembe Sub-county, says the collapse of the bridge is likely to negatively affect tourism, as many visitors use the Kihembe–Butogota–Bwindi Road while travelling to and from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
Kanungu Deputy Resident District Commissioner Gaddie Rugaaju Ahimbisibwe confirms visiting the site and witnessing the collapsed bridge. He attributes the disaster to poor workmanship, saying the district engineer and the construction team used old, rusty culverts instead of new ones.
Rugaaju says that the contractor used substandard Y6 and Y10 iron bars in the bridge’s retaining walls and mixed cement with an inadequate ratio, leaving the structure too weak to withstand heavy rain. He questions the district engineer’s commencing the project without an official groundbreaking ceremony involving local leaders to oversee the works.
Rugaaju says that when he visited the site to monitor the damage after receiving reports of the collapse, the district engineer and other officials from the Works Department had reportedly fled. He has now directed police to arrest Mugaye and other officials in the department for questioning over the alleged shoddy work and the misuse of government funds.
He describes the incident as unfortunate. For the bridge to collapse even before commissioning, saying the engineer has undermined a vital infrastructure project on a road frequently used by tourists travelling to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
