A multistorey building under construction collapsed on a busy commercial street in Eastleigh, Nairobi, on Friday, and by Saturday rescuers were still digging for people who were in the shops beneath it. Those shops had no legal right to be open: Kenyan officials say the building never received an occupation certificate.
The basement and ground floor of the unfinished tower held an electronics shop, a butchery and a grocery, according to Al Jazeera’s reporting. The collapse happened on Eastleigh’s commercial strip, where the people most exposed were shopkeepers and the workers around them.
At least two people were pulled out alive, and the Associated Press reported another rescue on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the collapse. Teams used sniffer dogs, thermal sensors, poles and excavators. Officials warned of a risk of a second collapse because the structure is leaning against a neighboring building.
How many people are missing is not settled. Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen put the number at seven early on. The Kenya Red Cross said it had recorded 31 missing persons but was still verifying the reports, disaster officer Vincent Ochieng said. Murkomen said 67 workers were on the site and that 66 of them escaped unharmed.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said the missing certificate made the trading on the lower floors illegal. “This has potentially cost lives,” he said.
Who answers for it
Police have opened an investigation into the cause and any criminal liability and began a manhunt for the building’s owner and the contractor in charge of the site, the BBC reported. Government spokesman Charles Owino later said the registered owner is dead and that family members and another party were managing the property. No one has been arrested or charged.
Business owners nearby blamed local government for failing to enforce building rules. The National Building Inspectorate has found that 87% of the buildings it audited nationwide failed to meet standards or lacked proper approvals, Al Jazeera reported.
Rescue work continues, and the Red Cross is still reconciling its count of the missing with the government’s.
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