Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) students Leader, Mark Thiong’o has called upon the government and the society at large to stop contracting greedy developers hiring bogus contractors in contracting buildings.
This follows the collapse of a five-storey building at Juja in Kiambu County on Sunday which hosted over 50 students from JKUAT.
The storey-building collapsed after a similar incident at Kinoo leaving countless damages started caving in on Sunday morning allegedly after a sewerage system was dug inside 2 weeks ago making its foundation unstable.
Before the immense destruction, cracking of the building was heard hence catching the attention of the children who were playing outside and in turn alerting the adults who were nearby who realized that the building was indeed caving in.
“The demolished building has rendered some of the students from JKUAT and victims homeless and all their valuables belongings destroyed,” Thiong’o said.
Kiambu County Government and the National Construction Authority (NCA), ordered the demolition of the flat which was successfully done using excavators by officers from the National Building Inspectorate in collaboration with the county engineers.
Key documents, clothes, home appliances were among the valuables which were destroyed leaving the students stranded.
“One of the children who were just playing around reported to us about some noise that was coming from the building, so we rushed to see what was happening and to our shock, we saw the building caving in.” a resident said.
Reports state that only one female student whose door was locked suffered minor injuries while she was trying to rescue herself through the window which was the only escape route at that time.
Thiong’o added that the affected students have been hosted in the institution’s hostels and efforts to help them return to their normal life are being done as he urges National leaders from the area to offer material support to the student victims to enable them to continue with their studies.
“The school management has organized for the accommodation of the affected students for the time being until we find a long-term solution that will help them recover and return to their normal lives, I am urging the National leaders to support these students,” he added.