Rescue crews in hard hats were still probing the wreckage with tree poles as darkness fell Friday, hours after an 18-storey building under construction pancaked into a mountain of concrete in Nairobi’s crowded Eastleigh district.
The collapse struck at about 1 p.m. Along a busy commercial street thronged with thousands of traders and residents, according to Nairobi police chief Issa Mohamud. The structure had more than 10 upper floors still being built, with shops illegally operating on the ground floor while construction continued above.
Plasterer Kaula, who had been working on the fifth floor, described the final moments before the structure gave way. He said he heard screams and spotted other workers rushing outside, shouting that the building was collapsing.
“I was the last person to walk out before it collapsed and the whole area was filled with dust,” Kaula said.
Kaula suspects a few of his colleagues were trapped in the basement. By evening, at least two more back shovels had joined one excavator that began moving concrete bound with steel, but heavy equipment had been scarce in the critical early hours. Mohamud warned that the collapsed building was leaning on its neighbor, raising the risk of a secondary collapse.
One injured woman had been pulled from the rubble and hospitalized. Another person who had been crying for help had gone silent, the police chief said.
Family members gathered at a tent set up for reporting the missing. Some told rescuers that trapped loved ones had managed phone calls immediately after the collapse, but that their phones later became unreachable. How many might be inside the wreckage wasn’t known.
Nairobi Gov. Johnson Sakaja said the building had been approved for construction, but did not have a certificate of occupation. Opening shops on the ground floor was against the law, he noted. Kenya’s county governments need stronger enforcement powers, Sakaja argued, saying lenient penalties for non-compliance are just a “slap on the wrist” for developers that violate regulations.
Rescuers were focusing on reaching any spaces left in the basement and ground level, which had housed an electronics shop, a butchery and a grocery. The operation was complicated by looting at neighboring shops, with police firing tear gas to clear the area and provide access to emergency response teams.
Building collapses are a recurring problem in Nairobi, where county officials responsible for issuing permits have been accused of failing to conduct adequate inspections to ensure developers comply with safety guidelines and construction standards.
“Investigations will be carried out,” Mohamud said. “We’ll make sure people face the law for any negligence.”
Rescue efforts were expected to continue through the night as crews worked to locate any survivors in the tightly compressed floors.