On January 10, 2026, Raphael Mwandikwa, 40, left his home in Zimmerman estate to Karen early in the morning, a construction site where he was working as a carpenter.
That day, he was supposed to return home around 2 pm as he had promised his wife, but this was never to be. “At 2:50 pm, I got anxious and wanted to find out why he had not returned as usual. When I called, he was not picking and I started feeling uneasy," his wife, Lydia, told The Standard.
Mwandikwa was among two workers who died after a building under construction collapsed in Karen Ward, Lang'ata Sub-County.
Lydia says it was until 4 pm when someone picked her husband’s phone and informed her that Mwandikwa had been involved in an accident at the construction site where he had been working since October 2025.
"No one has reached out to us, including the owner of the house, the contractor and even foreman; we have been left alone as if nothing happened," Lydia said.
"I have been left as a widow, to take care of three children who are still young that is why we are fighting for justice; not even the county has reached to tell us to tell us the way forward or who will foot the burial bills,” she added.
According to witnesses, the residential building, which had been constructed up to the first floor, caved in while some workers were mixing concrete underneath.
Unfortunately, Mwandikwa and another colleague were buried by the debris consisting of concrete and metallic materials and it took more than three hours before their bodies were retrieved.
An autopsy conducted on Mwandikwa's body at the City Mortuary on Tuesday at Nairobi Funeral Home established that he died due to multiple injuries on the head, limbs, and abdomen due to blunt force trauma.
It was discovered that some of his ribs were broken after a heavy pillar that was supporting the house fell on him.
The tragedy comes barely a fortnight after a similar incident occurred in South C, claiming the lives of two security guards manning the building under construction.
Authorities have largely been blamed for the incidents, bringing the construction authorising agencies into sharp scrutiny.
