One body trapped in the rubble of a three-storey building that collapsed on Saturday in Ruai, east of Nairobi was retrieved on Sunday.
The ill-fated building served as a lodging named Mombasa Ndogo. A man and a woman were reportedly said to have been trapped.
Yesterday, the building’s caretaker was rescued and rushed to Mama Lucy Hospital leaving the other two still trapped in the debris.
Njiru sub-county Deputy County Commissioner Patrick Muli, confirmed that at the time of the incident, the building had three occupants.
“The caretaker was rescued in the morning and rushed to hospital. He’s now in stable condition,” he told the Standard.
The DCC added that since the collapse of the building, a woman had been crying for help but she stopped at around 8am.
By Yesterday evening at 7pm, the two had not been found yet.
Sammy Mwaniki, a neighbor recounted that the building tumbled down at 4am.
“Initially l thought it was an accident but found it was a building that had collapsed. Since l suspected there must be people trapped, l started making calls, waking up people to come help in the rescue,” he narrated.
Ruai MCA John Kamangu said the building that collapsed had been earmarked for demolition by the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA)
“It was just a matter of time before KeNHA brought it down the lodging. Unfortunately it has collapsed with people inside,” said Kamangu who is Nairobi County Assembly’s Deputy Speaker.
The owner of the building has since gone into hiding.
Ministry of Housing’s Patrick Mbucha noted the building was constructed with substandard materials and built in a hurry.
“The building was hastily done using sub-standard materials. The owner was in hurry to meet the high demand for the houses.”