The Nairobi County Urban Planning Department has been exposed yet again following the collapse of a building in Kahawa West, Roysambu Constituency.
Details have emerged that the building located along Station Road, which collapsed on Sunday morning, was constructed without approval from the Nairobi County Government.
As a multi-agency team led by the Kenya Defence Forces Disaster Response Battalion and Kenya Red Cross continues with the rescue mission to ensure that no one is trapped in the rubble, Nairobi Deputy Governor James Muchiri said that the county was aware of a looming disaster.
“We were aware that this building had problems because our experts had issued notices and gave a warning to residents,” Mr Muchiri said.
By the time of going to press, no casualty had been reported, although the Deputy Governor, who visited the scene and was briefed on the rescue operation, claimed that one person who was involved in evacuation may have been trapped inside.
“We have no casualties as of now but there are allegations that one person might be inside there with a child and that is what we want to confirm. We are not sure, and that is why we have mobilised all these teams,” he said.
KDF deployed sniffer dogs to try and establish if there were people in the ill-fated building even as there were claims that people’s voices could be heard at the site.
The National Construction Authority said in a statement that the owner of the building had been given 14 days to provide a structural integrity report last week.
“The building had been condemned by the Multi-Sectoral Agency Consultative Committee on Wednesday and an enforcement order was issued for immediate evacuation,” NCA Director Maurice Akech said.
As the rescue and recovery mission continued, residents blamed the county government for allowing the developer to risk people’s lives by reinforcing the cracks of the building.
“The cracks were visible and even after the county issued a notice, instead of asking people to vacate, he (developer) started doing renovation from the ground floor,” a witness, Christopher Tenka who saw the building collapsing, said.
Mr Tenka said that about an hour before it fell, a huge crack emerged and tiles fell out as the building shook.
“I saw the building coming down at around 11am, and people who were passing around were asked to avoid the area,” Mr Tenka said.
One person was rescued from the building and taken to hospital by locals before the rescue team arrived.
“His legs were badly injured, and since he could not speak because he is a person with a disability, he raised a piece of cloth and we were able to see him from a distance,” one resident said.
County Chief Officer for Disaster Management Bramwell Simiyu said they will investigate why the owner of the building was allowed to reinforce the illegal building.
In May, a five-storey building collapsed in Uthiru, reports indicate it had been deemed unfit.
