MAKERERE: – After almost a year, Makerere University is ready to rebuild the iconic main building but the cost will reach upwards of Shs. 15 billion, MediaScape News has learnt.
All structural and architectural designs necessary for the reconstruction of its iconic main building, burnt to ruins in September 2020 are in place.
“We had to draw the original architectural designs so the physical appearance [of the reconstructed building] will remain the same as it was before the fire,” Professor Umar Kakumba, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor for academic affairs, told University World News recently.
The basement was the only part of the building that was not damaged.
The main building, in the style of British architecture of the 1940s, had high white walls and blue-shuttered windows before the fire that broke out in the early morning of 20 September 2020 turned it into rubble.
Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, the vice-chancellor of Makerere University, told the online publication that the institution will need at least UGX15 billion (about US$4,166,000) to reconstruct their main building, which was a symbol of higher education in Uganda and Africa.
Early last week, the Minister of ICT Chris Baryomunsi announced that the Cabinet resolved to demolish what remains of the burnt Makerere University main building, and rebuild it.
“Cabinet decided that the Makerere main building be demolished and rebuilt. We have also directed the Minister of finance to release sh21 billion for the reconstruction of this main building,” he told the media.
The Cabinet decision comes months after recommendations made late last year by a committee that was set up to study and assess the structural integrity of the burnt Makerere University main building. The committee recommended that the entire building be demolished.
Days after the fire last year, the University Council announced a restoration plan. However, there was a need to understand the integrity of the structure before a decision on the scope of the work could be taken.
Damage assessment
In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the university management and local police instituted a committee to determine the cause of the blaze and assess the extent of the damage.
The management moved the offices of the vice-chancellor, the deputy vice-chancellor for finance and administration, and that of the university secretary [which had been housed in the main building] to another building.
Similarly, the offices of the university bursar, the directorate of human resources, the directorate of internal audit, the public relations office and the council room were also moved to another facility on the campus.
“We had to stay operational,” said the deputy vice-chancellor. “Few students were on campus [because of the coronavirus] but the university had to keep running.”
The fire destroyed practically all hard copy documents in the offices of the vice-chancellor, his deputy for finance and administration, the directorates of human resources and internal audit and the central registry.
But all student data, including academic records, which were stored digitally on the academic information management system and also backed up at the Uganda Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, was kept safe.
“We were lucky most of our academic and student files were backed up,” said Kakumba.
Infrastructure should be monitored
Investigators from the ministries of works and transport and internal affairs early this year ruled out arson as a cause of the fire and said the blaze “might have been a result of electrical faults in the installation”.
They called for the demolition of the entire building and reconstruction of a new one, the overhaul of electrical systems in a number of campus buildings, the installation of a fire hydrant and the recruitment of electrical experts.
Flavia Bwire, the executive secretary for the National Building Review Board, who was part of the investigation, said the university needed to regularly monitor the “state of its infrastructure”.
Nawangwe said the institution’s administration would take the investigators’ recommendations seriously.
Kakumba said the university would continue to strengthen its academic information management system and electronic human resource management system.
“We are migrating almost all our information here … to the academic information management system,” said the deputy vice-chancellor. “We want to digitize all of it.”
NOTE: Part of the text adopted from University World News