Cases of buildings collapsing while still under construction is becoming eerily frequent, writes JECKONIA OTIENO
Last Saturday, this unfortunate occurrence reared its ugly head again — this time in Mlolongo, Machakos County — a few kilometres from Nairobi City centre.
The five-storey building which was under construction when it crumbled had two floors already in use by tenants. One of the already finished floors had an open restaurant even as the building underwent construction of the upper floors.
Most baffling flaws about the whole building process was that there was no wall on one side of the building adjacent to a neighbouring building which is complete and operational.
Pointing out this at the site of the collapsed building was chairman of the Architectural Association of Kenya, Steven Oundo. He noted that the developer probably in a bid to cut costs had decided to ignore putting up a wall adjacent to the complete building.
“The fact that this building did not have a wall on one side points out that either both buildings are owned by the same person or the different owners of the buildings colluded so as not to have a wall on this collapsed building,” observed Oundo.
“Building a wall is procedural process which every building developer has to take into account” noted Oundo.
Sub-standard
On location the site was a mess as the huge forklifts that had been brought could not lift the slabs — that were supposed to be the floors — as they kept disintegrating into rubble.
According to professionals, this is a sign that the whole process of construction was not up to requisite standards.
