THUNDER DESTROYS SHOPS IN KASESE

Five retail shops are no more after the building on which they were being operated at Kinyabisiki Trading Center, Kyondo sub-county in Kasese district caught fire after being struck by thunder on Saturday afternoon.

An eye witness said, the thunder struck during light drizzles at about 3:30pm and there after the house was seen ablaze.

According to the eye witness, there were no casualties recorded when the thunder struck the building.

“ It was drizzling and we saw the lightening strips on the sky and shortly there was heavy thunder. Then we had someone shout Enyumba yamahya (the house is on fire) and when we ran out, it was already too much”. The eye witness said.

The area district councilor Mr. Jovenale Muke said that lives survived because the retail shop keepers had not yet opened for the evening business. Trading centers in most rural areas become busy from 5pm to midnight.

The Chairman Kinyabisiki Trading Center Mr. Valentine Muhindo said five shops operating on the house of the late Kesi Bwambale were burnt to ashes and traders now count loses.

Muhindo said retail goods worth over twenty million shillings have been destroyed in the lightening incident.

He identified the affected traders as Vincent Muhisyamasi, Simion Lyabuya, Wesley Bitswatswa, Edmon Mbayahi and Emmy Nguru.

Muhindo said that there was no way to save any goods from being destroyed by fire because all the shops were closed by the time of the thunder.

The incident has caused anxiety among the people in the area with some speculating that it may be an effect of supernatural powers following alleged theft by someone on the building.

One of the shop losers Wesley Bitswatswa says he had a loan worth two million shillings to boast his four million retail business that used to deal in different goods ranging from clothes to edibles.

“ I have been paying a two million load from a local SACCO and had not yet completed it. My worry is on how to pay back because there is no more business for me here” Mr. Bitswatswa said.

Meanwhile, farmers in Kanyatsi and Buyagha parishes in the same sub-county are at the brick of hunger after hail stones destroyed several gardens.

The district councilor Mr. Jovenale Muke says that banana plantations, cassava and recently germinated beans have been destroyed by a three-hour heavy down pour accompanied by wind and hail stones.

He said that most of the farmers will need to buy new seeds for replanting where as other may not plant again because the soils have also been washed away. END.