Every ignored report is a future death notice, lobby warns Sakaja on building collapses

Rescue workers search for survivors at a collapsed building along Muhoho Avenue in Nairobi's South C estate. [File,Standard]

A grassroots movement has accused Nairobi authorities of systemic failure after a series of building collapses killed at least seven people across the city.

Mtetezi, in a statement by chairperson Francis Awino, called on Governor Johnson Sakaja and multiple state agencies to account for what the movement described as institutional breakdown, not structural bad luck.

"Buildings do not collapse only because concrete is weak," Mtetezi stated, adding, “Buildings collapse because institutions are weak."

The statement followed the partial collapse of a 22-storey building under construction in Westlands, which left multiple workers trapped.

The incident came days after a five-storey building fell at Blue Estate in Shauri Moyo on March 16, killing four people. Two other workers died in separate earlier incidents in South C and Karen.

Mtetezi identified five systemic failures, it said, that drove the crisis: manipulation of site conditions and planning data to justify unsafe approvals; irregular and unlawful development permits; gross zoning non-compliance and unlawful densification; violations of setback, ventilation and public health requirements; and enforcement failure where stop orders and revocation notices went unheeded.

"A stop order that does not stop anything is not enforcement," the movement stated. "A revocation that does not halt construction is not accountability."

The movement directed demands at Sakaja to publicly disclose the approval, inspection and enforcement history for all recent collapse sites.

It also called on county planning departments to reveal which high-risk buildings were under dispute, notice or investigation.

Mtetezi further demanded that the National Construction Authority (NCA), the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) and the Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors (BORAQS) identify the professionals associated with the collapsed structures and confirm whether disciplinary proceedings had begun.

The movement urged Parliament, the Senate and the Nairobi County Assembly to convene urgent public hearings on illegal approvals and enforcement failures, and called on the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate any collusion or corruption linked to unsafe developments.

"Every ignored report is a future death notice. Every filed-and-forgotten investigation is a silent permit for the next disaster," Mtetezi stated.

The movement expressed solidarity with construction workers and residents living near structurally questionable buildings, closing with a demand that authorities end what it called a cycle of buried reports and buried victims.

Sakaja, for his part, has since announced new construction guidelines requiring professionals removed from sites to formally notify both the county government and their respective regulatory bodies.

The directive affects the Architectural Association of Kenya, the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya and the Engineers Board of Kenya.