‘We had condemned this collapsed building alongside others’

The ugly face of impunity came to the fore as it emerged that the ill-fated Huruma building had been condemned by safety officials last year.

The building was among the many on the stretch of the river marked for demolition. But in a strange turn of events, neither did the tenants leave nor was it demolished as directed.

Yesterday, Mlango Kubwa Chief Mariam Doka said the buildings were standing on a shaky foundation owing to their closeness to a river which tends to flood when it rains.
“We had condemned this building alongside others. We went as far as marking them, but it looks like the owners or the tenants rubbed off our demolition markings,” said Ms Doka.

Other security officials interviewed claimed that the tenants demanded a six-month notice when they were required to vacate. Reports also indicate that the owner of the building, Samuel Kamau wa Kaheni, owned other houses on the same stretch of the river.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett said the police are looking for Kamau to assist in investigations on incident. He required him to surrender himself to the nearest police. By the time of going to press, it was not clear whether Kamau had surrendered, if he was on the run or was simply unreachable.

“We only want him to assist in investigations on the process of approval of the building. Nothing is implied or presupposed in this. In fact our interest may change if it were to emerge that indeed he got the approvals necessary in the right manner,” Police Spokesman Charles Owino said.

The spotlight would then turn to the approval offices, building inspectors and those who failed to demolish the buildings after they were officially condemned.

In the past, owners of collapsed buildings, officials of approving agencies, contractors and planners have been held to account for the collapse. In 2006, after the collapse of a building in Nyamakima in the city centre, police charged four senior officials of the defunct Nairobi City Council with negligence.

The owner of the building, Jimmy Kihonge, was also charged with 14 counts of manslaughter. The government, however, lost a suit to demolish the building. Kihonge rebuilt the property as the case continued to drag in court.

Getting approving officers to account for the collapse is not a walk in the park. In the case of the building which collapsed in Pipeline in 2011 causing deaths and injuries, the approving officers got off the hook after investigators hastily assembled a weak case.