Eight-storey building collapses in Kahawa West

The eight-storey residential building in Kahawa West had been condemned for demolition, Nairobi county officials said. [UGC, X]

A residential building collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Sunday, leaving several people feared trapped, county officials and emergency responders said.

Cases of buildings caving in are not uncommon in the country, often a result of shoddy construction and flouted regulations.

The eight-storey building in Kahawa West, a densely-populated neighbourhood north of the capital, had been condemned for demolition, Nairobi county officials said.

Several families were feared trapped under the rubble, the Kenya Red Cross said on X.

One woman who was standing outside the building when it collapsed was hurt, Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja told AFP, adding that casualties were "expected to be minimal".

"She is currently undergoing treatment and is stable," he said, adding that residents of adjacent buildings will be evacuated.

The collapse sparked a swarm of onlookers to the scene sandwiched between high-rise buildings and a church.

Catherine Wanjiku, who had lived in the building since 2017, told AFP she was lucky to have escaped with her life.

"I don't feel good because I moved out yesterday. I am shaky, I am stressed. I have friends whose belongings have been destroyed in there," the 33-year-old said.

According to a Nairobi county document seen by AFP and dated October 16, the building had been constructed and occupied without the requisite approvals.

Tenants had been ordered to vacate the building in two weeks.

The East African nation is undergoing a construction boom, but corruption has allowed contractors to cut corners or bypass regulations.

Five people were killed when a six-storey building collapsed in a town on the outskirts of Nairobi in September 2022.

In April 2016, 49 people were killed when a six-floor apartment building crumbled in the northeast of the capital after days of heavy rain caused floods and landslides.

The building, constructed two years earlier, had been scheduled to be demolished after being declared structurally unsound.