The Special Forces Command (SFC), which is charged primarily with protecting the President, does not consider Mapeera House a security threat to the Fountain of Honor.
The SFC Monday afternoon sought to dispel reports that they were engaging with the owners of one of the tallest buildings in Kampala, about the President’s security.
Claims emerged earlier today in sections of the media, that Mapeera House, which also headquarters the Catholic Church owned Centenary Bank, was feared to provide a loophole in the President’s Security and privacy at his Nakasero State Lodge.
The elevation of the building’s two topmost floors in particular, — according to the reports which quote ‘reliable SFC sources,’ – give access to any ill intended person to harm the President.
They also claim that SFC assayed to convince the Catholic Church leadership and Centenary Bank officials to have the hazardous floors sealed off or rented out to security operatives, but these offers were turned down on economic grounds.
The SFC spokesperson Chris Magezi however, says the reports are entirely untrue and ought to be ignored.
While speaking to Chimpreports on the matter, Magezi questioned the logic of the claims, wondering; “Who commissioned (Mapeera House)? If the President knew what a threat it was to his own security, would he have commissioned it?”
Mr Magezi adds that as an elite force that is concerned with the President Security, they would not have permitted construction of a structure that threatens his own life, let alone commissioning it.
Mapeera House construction started in October 2007 and it was officially opened by President Museveni in 2012 – the same year that the Special Forces Command was morphed from the Special Forces Group (SFG).
Magezi stressed, “When they were constructing the building, we were there. We would have stopped them if we saw a threat in it. There is therefore no basis for this rumour mongering. It should be ignored.”
Meanwhile in a statement, Centenary Bank’s Managing Director Fabian Kasi also dismissed the rumor as false, calling for the public to disregard it.