People living and working near an 11-story building being built in Kona ya Kilifi, Mvita, were told to leave right away because the building looked like it was about to fall.
On Wednesday evening, people walking by saw the building was in danger of collapsing. They told the authorities, and emergency teams quickly came to the area.
The building, which was almost finished, had big cracks in its support beams. The first floor had already fallen down, and the building was leaning to one side, looking like it could fall at any moment.
Emergency teams closed off the area, made it more secure, and moved people out of nearby homes and businesses. They are planning to tear down the building.
“We moved people out of homes near the building, within 100 meters. We thank them for listening to us,” said RC Onyancha at the site.
She asked people to be patient while they plan to demolish the building and clean up the mess.
People were told not to go near the building to take metal or other things. They were told to stay away.
According to Architect Lawrence Gitau, from the National Building Inspectorate, the building was designed for sixth floor but it’s was built to 11 floor adding that they have looked at the site and confirmed the building collapsing.
“We saw the dangers the building posed. One floor has collapsed, which means the support beams on the ground floor broke, and the building fell down and is leaning,,” explained Arch. Gitau.
“l have see the document for that building, it has a county approval, NSA registration but for floors less than what is there we will be checking to see if there is further approvals.
He told builders to hire expert building professionals to design and watch over their buildings to avoid losing a lot of money.
“The cost of hiring these experts is very small compared to losing your investment, like we see today,” he said. He said the building’s support beams failed because of bad work.
Gitau said the building had permission from the local government and the National Construction Authority for fewer floors than it had. They will check if other permissions were given.
“We see that people get drawings and stamps from architects and engineers and get approval from the county, but they don’t hire those experts to watch over the building. This is a problem,” he said.
After the building is torn down, some materials will be tested in a lab to find out why it collapsed.
Builders were told to build only the number of floors they were allowed and to test the soil. He said people will be held responsible to bring order to the building industry.
Mombasa County’s Mohamed Hussein said that keeping people safe is the most important thing.
“We will do a full investigation to find out why this happened and make sure people are held responsible,” he said.
