Six workers were killed on Friday when a building under construction partly collapsed in Syokimau, near the Nairobi SGR Terminus on Mombasa Road. A preliminary report by Nairobi City County emergency teams, cited by Pulse Live and NTV, said the structure gave way at about 9.52am while workers were on site. The top slab came down and took part of the building with it.
Police told The Star the collapse happened during concreting works on the ninth floor, after the formwork reportedly failed. Most outlets describe the building as eight storeys high.
Bramwell Simiyu, the Nairobi County Chief Officer for Disaster Management, told NTV that rescuers pulled out three bodies in the morning and three more later. All six victims were middle-aged men. Nairobi police boss Issa Mohamud gave The Star the same figures. He said five workers were rescued and taken to nearby hospitals. In an earlier update, the Kenya Red Cross said three people had been rescued and one was missing. Later on Friday, The Star reported that all 405 workers had been accounted for.
Nairobi City County fire crews, Urban Search and Rescue teams and the Kenya Red Cross combed through the rubble. "Search and rescue teams are actively combing the debris to locate any individuals who may remain trapped," Mohamud said. Police asked motorists and the public to keep away from the stretch of Mombasa Road near the SGR Terminus so rescuers could work. Nairobi East County Commissioner Were Simiyu told KBC that investigators are trying to establish what caused the collapse. The victims had not been identified by Friday.
Citizen Digital reported that National Disaster Management Unit Director Duncan Ochieng named Reportage Kenya as the building's owner. He said Top Choice Surveillance is the contractor. Embakasi East MP Babu Owino blamed Governor Johnson Sakaja's administration for the collapse, according to People Daily. He accused the county of negligence, corruption and failing to enforce construction rules. No response from Sakaja was reported.
The collapse came exactly three weeks after another unfinished building fell on 9th Street in Eastleigh on October 23. Eight people died in that collapse and four were rescued, Pulse Live reported. The search ended on November 6 with three people still unaccounted for. After the Eastleigh collapse, the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered the DCI to investigate possible negligence by public officials, developers and construction professionals. At the Nairobi City County Assembly, hearings also aired claims that some building approval applications were submitted through brokers.