NAIROBI: A six-story residential building collapsed in heavy rain in Nairobi, killing 12 people and injuring scores, Kenyan officials said Saturday.
Rescuers in the Kenyan capital made desperate efforts to free survivors including a woman and child trapped in the building.
Seven other people died in floods elsewhere in Nairobi, including four killed when a wall collapsed.
“Ten bodies have been recovered, and we have 80 people who have been treated and discharged from hospital,” Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told reporters amid the wreckage of the building.
“There is a lady in the building and her child who are alive, and all efforts are being made to rescue them, as well as other people still believed to be in the building,” Nkaissery said.
The Kenya Red Cross said 150 building units and adjacent homes were affected. Rescuers said they could hear voices of five people trapped in the building and said it will be difficult to remove the concrete slabs using heavy machinery without endangering those stuck in the rubbled, said nominated legislator Johnson Sakaja.
Live TV footage showed the National Youth Service and firefighters removing stones by hand and a crowd cheering as a child was removed from the rubble. President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the scene.
Hours-long traffic jams caused by flooded roads delayed rescue teams trying to reach the scene, said Japheth Koome, Nairobi’s police chief said. The 134 injured were rescued from the rubble, Koome said. Kenya is in the midst of its April-May rainy season.
Jacob Kiruma, who said he lived in the house adjacent to the one that collapsed, said the building was constructed “shoddily.” The structure had been built in less than five months and the 126 single rooms were quickly occupied at a rent of $35 a month, Kiruma said.
Area legislator Stephen Kariuki said this was the second building to collapse in a year. He blamed the county government of failing to follow through with demolitions of buildings that were identified as unfit for human habitation.
Taking advantage of a high demand for housing in Nairobi, some property developers bypass building regulations to cut costs and maximize profits.
President Kenyatta last year ordered an audit of all the buildings in the country to see if they are up to code after eight buildings collapsed, killing at least 15 people. The report from the audit by the National Construction Authority found that 58 percent of buildings in the capital were unfit to live in. The majority of Nairobi’s 4 million people live in low-income areas or slums.
The heavy rains have caused other fatalities. Four people died when a wall collapsed Friday in the affluent Hurlingham area and two people drowned when they were swept away by flood waters in the capital’s industrial area, said Nairobi police chief Koome.
President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the wreck of the six-story building on Saturday, where 10 people perished after concrete floors collapsed down on top of each other during torrential rainstorms on Friday.
The two-year-old building, home to more than over 150 families, had been condemned by building authorities but the order had been ignored.
But access for rescuers with larger machinery has been made difficult by the narrow and crowded streets.
One survivor was pulled from the huge pile of debris shortly after dawn, Kenya Red Cross said, some 10 hours after the building collapsed Friday night.
Pictures broadcast by local media showed soldiers, policemen and civilians searching through the rubble.
Kenyatta “braved the rainy and chilly weather” to visit densely-populated and poor Huruma neighborhood, a statement from the presidency said.
He ordered police “take immediate action to identify and arrest owners of buildings who have ignored directives by the National Construction Authority,” it said.
Rescuers in the Kenyan capital made desperate efforts to free survivors including a woman and child trapped in the building.
Seven other people died in floods elsewhere in Nairobi, including four killed when a wall collapsed.
“Ten bodies have been recovered, and we have 80 people who have been treated and discharged from hospital,” Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told reporters amid the wreckage of the building.
“There is a lady in the building and her child who are alive, and all efforts are being made to rescue them, as well as other people still believed to be in the building,” Nkaissery said.
The Kenya Red Cross said 150 building units and adjacent homes were affected. Rescuers said they could hear voices of five people trapped in the building and said it will be difficult to remove the concrete slabs using heavy machinery without endangering those stuck in the rubbled, said nominated legislator Johnson Sakaja.
Live TV footage showed the National Youth Service and firefighters removing stones by hand and a crowd cheering as a child was removed from the rubble. President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the scene.
Hours-long traffic jams caused by flooded roads delayed rescue teams trying to reach the scene, said Japheth Koome, Nairobi’s police chief said. The 134 injured were rescued from the rubble, Koome said. Kenya is in the midst of its April-May rainy season.
Jacob Kiruma, who said he lived in the house adjacent to the one that collapsed, said the building was constructed “shoddily.” The structure had been built in less than five months and the 126 single rooms were quickly occupied at a rent of $35 a month, Kiruma said.
Area legislator Stephen Kariuki said this was the second building to collapse in a year. He blamed the county government of failing to follow through with demolitions of buildings that were identified as unfit for human habitation.
Taking advantage of a high demand for housing in Nairobi, some property developers bypass building regulations to cut costs and maximize profits.
President Kenyatta last year ordered an audit of all the buildings in the country to see if they are up to code after eight buildings collapsed, killing at least 15 people. The report from the audit by the National Construction Authority found that 58 percent of buildings in the capital were unfit to live in. The majority of Nairobi’s 4 million people live in low-income areas or slums.
The heavy rains have caused other fatalities. Four people died when a wall collapsed Friday in the affluent Hurlingham area and two people drowned when they were swept away by flood waters in the capital’s industrial area, said Nairobi police chief Koome.
President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the wreck of the six-story building on Saturday, where 10 people perished after concrete floors collapsed down on top of each other during torrential rainstorms on Friday.
The two-year-old building, home to more than over 150 families, had been condemned by building authorities but the order had been ignored.
But access for rescuers with larger machinery has been made difficult by the narrow and crowded streets.
One survivor was pulled from the huge pile of debris shortly after dawn, Kenya Red Cross said, some 10 hours after the building collapsed Friday night.
Pictures broadcast by local media showed soldiers, policemen and civilians searching through the rubble.
Kenyatta “braved the rainy and chilly weather” to visit densely-populated and poor Huruma neighborhood, a statement from the presidency said.
He ordered police “take immediate action to identify and arrest owners of buildings who have ignored directives by the National Construction Authority,” it said.
