Enforce rules to avert collapse of buildings
The perennial collapsed buildings menace is rearing its ugly head again, highlighting the grave danger driven by greed and corruption. The latest is the tumbling down of an illegally constructed seven-storey residential building at Kahawa West on Nairobi’s northwestern outskirts. It has been confirmed that the building was constructed without approval from the city county government.
This incident has exposed the city’s urban planning department for sleeping on the job and failing to ensure safety. Developers who grease the palms of corrupt officials to be allowed to cut corners and save on construction costs endanger the lives of innocent people, who rent those premises.
Unsuspecting passers-by have also been injured when shoddy buildings under construction collapse. Apart from lack of supervision, the use of substandard materials has also been blamed for the deadly mishaps.
Luckily, no deaths have been reported so far by a multi-agency team led by the Kenya Defence Forces Disaster Response Battalion and the Kenya Red Cross. It mounted a rescue mission to ensure that nobody was trapped in the rubble.
Governor Johnson Sakaja has confirmed that all those feared to have been stuck in the building have been accounted for. The city county says it had been informed about the looming tragedy after the building was condemned and immediately ordered the evacuation of the residents.
The National Construction Authority (NCA) has now given the owner of the building 14 days to provide a structural integrity report. The city’s Disaster Management says it is investigating to establish why the owner was allowed to reinforce an illegal building. In May, a five-storey building that had also been declared unfit collapsed at Uthiru.
Crooked developers often collude with wayward City Hall officials to dodge the NCA’s scrutiny and bypass approvals. Poor workmanship is the highest cause of the collapsed buildings, at 25 per cent. The use of sub-standard construction materials, including poor quality cement, accounts for 28 cent, and the unprofessional and unethical conduct of contractors, 34 per cent.
Construction rules and regulations must be strictly enforced before any building approvals are granted.
