Gachie tragedy: One worker dies after rescue from collapsed building
Rescue workers at the collapsed building in Gachie on August 30, 2021.
A construction worker who was rescued from a five-storey building that collapsed in Gachie has died.
Kiambu County chief fire officer, Mr Samuel Kahura, told nation.africa that the man succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday morning while receiving treatment at Tigoni Hospital.
"Unfortunately we have lost one survivor who was rescued from the debris yesterday. He had sustained serious injuries," he said.
So far, eight people have been rescued from the rubble of the building that collapsed Monday during construction.
Rescue workers at the collapsed building in Gachie on August 30, 2021.
Rescue efforts continued well into Monday night as teams from the Kenya Red Cross, Kenya Army and disaster management units from Kiambu and Nairobi counties combed through the debris.
Hope for more survivors
On Tuesday morning, rescue teams were searching for five people said to be trapped inside the building.
"The number of people not accounted for and who were working in the building when the incident happened is five,’’ said Mr Kahura.
"No additional recoveries have been made so far this morning but we continue with rescue operations. We are hopeful that we will come across more survivors,’’ he added.
The building came tumbling down as the workers were putting up a shrub on the 5th floor.
Witnesses say that some workers noticed the building had started to tremble and jumped from the fifth floor, only to trapped when the structure collapsed.
Kiambu police commander, Mr Ali Nuno, said the owner of the building, identified as Michael Mbugua, is being sought.
Authorities want Mr Mbugua to explain how he continued with construction even after it was flagged by regulators.
"Mr Mbugua is still on large. We want to interrogate him and arraign him in court to explain how he continued with construction...The County Government of Kiambu had stopped the construction for failing to meet approval requirements,’’ said Mr Nuno.
However, efforts by nation.africa to get the said protest letter that Kiambu County says it wrote to the developer were futile by press time even after reaching out to Mr Charles Mwangi, the devolved unit's Director of Planning.
In a similar incident in 2015, another building collapsed while under construction in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, injuring several construction workers. No deaths were reported.
