Collapsing buildings: Uganda’s deadly cost of cutting corners

Last July in Buziga, an upscale Kampala suburb, construction workers crawled from the rubble of a collapsing building. Several were injured; one died.

The tragedy felt all too familiar. Just a year earlier, another building had come down in Masaka, killing a worker there too. These recurring disasters have become grim reminders of a construction sector where regulations exist on paper, but enforcement is dangerously thin.

In May, the Uganda Engineers Registration Board suspended a city engineer for professional misconduct linked to fatal collapses. But architects and industry experts say the problem runs deeper than one negligent official. They argue that unqualified builders, often hired because they are cheaper than trained professionals, are at the centre of Uganda’s construction crisis.

Jacqueline Namayanja, president of the Uganda Society of Architects (USA), says architects are too often sidelined in projects that desperately need their expertise.

“Once you leave the architect out of any sort of public service, any sort of public purpose, when it comes to building cities, there’s going to be a lot of chaos,” she told reporters.

“We are seeing that chaos right now. The architect has a great input in anything that deals with physical planning, spatial planning, and environmental manipulation. Once that is left out, that’s where problems start.”

Namayanja blames a widespread habit of confusing “fundis,” local handymen, with trained architects and engineers. Fundis are often asked to draft plans or supervise construction despite lacking the years of study and professional licensing required for the job. The results, she says, can be deadly.

Catherine Nanteza, secretary of the USA, echoed Namayanja’s concerns, warning that the spread of short-term certificate courses in architecture and engineering has worsened the situation.

“These three-month to one-year certificate courses have worsened the situation,” she said. “I studied for five years to become an architect, not to mention the rigorous training and experience after that, before I even sat my professional exams, to make sure that a building doesn’t fall, that a project is well managed. But then you want someone else who didn’t do that kind of training to sit down and review what I’ve designed?”

She called for stronger regulations to weed out masqueraders and protect the public from unsafe construction.

A WIDER CONVERSATION ON ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE

The architects spoke ahead of a national symposium organized by the Uganda Society of Architects and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Creative Industries (UGAPAFOCI). The gathering, themed “Sustainable Architecture and the Creative Economy,” is scheduled for September 11 at Sheraton Kampala hotel, with Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among as the guest of honor.

Rachel Magoola, chairperson of UGAPAFOCI, said the event will highlight the often-overlooked role of architects as part of Uganda’s creative industry.

“Much as they are rarely recognized in this space, architects are also creatives, because they are the ones who draw the beautiful buildings on paper before they are actualized,” she said.

She added that Uganda could follow the example of countries like China and the United Arab Emirates, where modern skylines still reflect cultural identity. Uganda’s construction boom is visible in every growing town and city.

But each collapse is a reminder that progress built on shortcuts can cost lives. Architects and engineers are urging Ugandans and the government to treat professional oversight not as a luxury but as a safeguard. The stakes could not be higher.

As Namayanja put it: “We are building the future of our cities. If we ignore professionals, we are laying the foundation for chaos.”