Historical Nakuru town hall collapses

The Nakuru City old Town Hall,

The Nakuru City old Town Hall whose roof collapsed on Friday.

Photo credit: Mercy Koskey | Nation Media Group

The Nakuru City old Town Hall, a colonial era building which was being used for public meetings, collapsed on Friday.

The old building had been gazetted as a national monument. It had been closed from public use to allow renovation to preserve its heritage at the time of its collapse.

The hall was gazetted along with the Nairobi Cinema, the National Archives building in Nairobi and Menengai Town Hall in Nakuru town as historical buildings.

According to the Nakuru city manager Gitau Thabanja no fatalities were reported from the collapse.

Mr Thabanja said that no activities were going on as the building had been closed to allow renovation.

“The roof of the old town hall collapsed in the morning but luckily nobody was hurt in the incident. However the Nakuru City Board has budgeted for the renovation that will commence with immediate effect. We are committed to the preservation and restoration of our heritage,” said Mr Thabanja.

Mr Lameck Otieno, a resident of Bondeni said that he was within the compound in one of the offices which are operational when the incident occurred.

He said that he just heard a loud noise coming from one of the buildings and realised that one of the buildings had collapsed when he stepped out to establish the cause of the noise.

"This is one of the oldest buildings and it is historical but the good thing is that the building had earlier been closed. We could have lost many lives here. We hope the county government will renovate it because we don't want to lose it," said Mr Otieno.