Over 100 buildings very dangerous, unsafe to habit

A resident of Joy-land estate in Juja around the building that collapsed on Wednesday night. [Photo by Kamau Maichuhie/Standard]

A residential building at Ngei estate in Huruma has visible wall cracks. Its dingy staircase is lined with freshly laundered clothes, an indication that all the rooms are occupied.

It is within that area that 49 people died when a building collapsed in 2016.

After the disaster, a number of buildings erected on the riparian reserves were demolished, but many are still unsuitable for habitation.

Huruma is home to thousands of tenants who find the shabby rooms affordable as the rent is between Sh2,500 and Sh3,000. And it is here that 711 buildings have been found to be dangerous.

Left homeless

An audit report prepared by National Buildings Chief Quantity Surveyor Inspectorate Moses Nyakiongora, during the past two and a half years, indicates that 1,437 buildings in Nairobi are unsafe.

Since January this year, tens of families have been left homeless after a building in Kariobangi South and another in Stage Mpya in Pipeline Estate collapsed.

Now that the rains are here and the season, which ordinarily heralds the collapse of structures on shaky foundations, the Government has started demolishing buildings considered dangerous, starting with Imara Daima, Zimmerman and Huruma.

Government engineer Samuel Charagu explained: “The County has evacuated families in these buildings and we will embark on a mission to demolish two in Zimmerman and six in Huruma while we continue to test those mentioned in the report.”

According to Charagu, one of the building has about six floors with 10 rooms on each floor, meaning close to 200 people on every floor.

“It is unsafe to have so many people on just one floor of a building which does not meet the required standards,” he said.

According to the audit report, 650 buildings are very dangerous and another 826 are deemed as unsafe.

A total of 4,879 buildings have been audited with 651 requiring immediate testing, while 185 buildings have been mapped in Pipeline.

Charagu said that they have demolished 34 buildings so far.

Given deadline

“We have tested 48 buildings and 40 cannot be rectified, which means we will demolish. Others have been given a deadline to rectify the situation,” he said.

In Mombasa’s Mazera and Mtwapa in Kilifi, a number of buildings were listed under unsafe category because the mapping was done under power lines.

Kisii County where a building collapsed last year has a total of nine very dangerous and three unsafe buildings

In Kiambu and Kitui towns, which do not have existing sewerage system, some developers have put up septic tanks within buildings and dug shallow wells, which compromises the safety and health of residents.