Questions have emerged over the enforcement of safety warnings after a four-storey building collapsed in Mamboleo, Kisumu County, on Monday morning, trapping tenants inside and injuring eight people.
The building, which housed about 40 families, partially collapsed at around 6am, sending tenants scrambling for safety as sections of the structure, including the staircase, gave way. Two people sustained critical injuries, while six others suffered minor injuries.
For Alex Babu, Monday morning began with a loud bang that jolted him from sleep and quickly turned into a fight for his life after part of the building he was renting collapsed.
Babu, who had gone to sleep at around 4am, said he woke up to rushing water entering his ground-floor house after a water tank and part of the building collapsed.
“I woke up and found myself submerged at the waist. In fact, if it wasn't for that, maybe I would even have drowned and become unconscious, and maybe no one would even know that I was inside,” Babu said.
He said the water entered through the kitchen, carrying a gas cylinder that hit his bedroom door and narrowly missed his head.
“I saw that the gas cylinder had banged on the wall, and that is when I quickly woke up and found myself submerged at the waist,” he said.
Babu tried to find an escape route but found the doors blocked by the force of the water and debris.
“When I went to try and find an exit route, the bathroom doors had jumped shut because of the rushing water coming in from the tank, which had burst at the bottom,” he said.
As the water level rose, Babu tried to escape through a window, but his attempts to force open the door failed after debris pushed against the structure. He eventually broke the window glass, injuring himself in the process, and tried to squeeze through.
He sat on the window frame as he waited for help. A neighbour who had escaped returned with others carrying spades and sledgehammers. They broke through the wall at the rear of the kitchen, creating an opening through which Babu was pulled to safety.
His phones and laptop had also been submerged, leaving him unable to call for help.
“There was no way I could even contact someone and call for help. Literally, I was just stranded,” he said. “If it wasn't for that neighbour going above and beyond, maybe I would still be there. No one would even know that I was there.”
Babu told The Standard that he only learnt after the collapse that the building had previously been flagged by the National Construction Authority (NCA) as unsafe.
“I learnt that there was an X mark from NCA. Another tenant told me that the mark had been plastered over,” he said.
Babu questioned why the building remained occupied despite the warning.
“The caretaker says he has an inspectorate certificate. Where did that certificate come from?” he said.
Another tenant, Simon Omondi, said he was also lucky to escape after hearing a series of loud bangs shortly before the building gave way.
“I'm lucky to be alive. It was around 5am on Monday when I felt something bang from up the floor. I thought it was water from the tank, which was full and leaking, and I continued to sleep,” Omondi said.
He said a bigger bang eventually forced him out of bed.
“I looked at the side of my room, and it was shaking and sinking. I looked for a key and opened outside to find my fellow tenants saying, ‘Tokeni nje, nyumba inaanguka’,” he said.
Omondi said the collapse damaged the staircase, making it difficult for tenants on the upper floors to escape.
“The stairs up were damaged. Those who were up the house didn't manage to get down; they just jumped down and got injured,” he said.
The tenants were later barred from returning to their rooms.
“Our belongings are there inside. We have been camping here outside since morning. We are being told that we will not go back to our rooms. We have lost our belongings,” Omondi said.
Rose Amondi, another survivor, said she had lived in the building for about three months and had never experienced a similar incident.
“I was living on the first floor, and we heard a loud bang. That is where things changed. I got out and saw the building collapsing, and people were all over outside and rescued us,” Amondi said.
“I jumped from the first floor down, and I was hit on my back and hands.”
The survivors' accounts came as authorities confirmed that the building had previously been subjected to safety warnings, raising questions over how it remained occupied and why construction continued.
Following the collapse, NCA officials placed a fresh notice on the building reading: “UNSAFE BUILDING. VACATE! 21/09/2026. NCA 4TH WARNING.”
The Standard also established that several nearby buildings had NCA X marks, with some of the markings appearing to have been partially erased or covered.
Fredrick Mariwa, Advisor on Partnerships, Resource Mobilisation and Urban Development for the City of Kisumu, confirmed that the collapsed building had previously been subjected to enforcement action.
“We are aware this has been done a number of times. I understand that this has been done a number of times, not only once by NCA, and it is like the owner defied them, and they were still moving on with construction,” Mariwa said.
He said the county government had also previously raised concerns about the building.
“This was not only done by NCA alone, but also the County Government of Kisumu Planning Department had also done that before. But then it seems the owner defied and was continuing with the construction,” he said.
The revelations have put both the regulator and county authorities under scrutiny over the enforcement of warnings against the building.
Mariwa said the structure was still under construction and that the additional weight from construction materials could have contributed to its collapse, although investigations were ongoing.
“What might have also brought this is the weight, because you can see sand at the site, and you can see that construction was ongoing in terms of putting floor tiles and adding some more weight, which might have also resulted in this,” he said.
He said authorities were also examining documents presented in relation to the building to establish whether its approvals were genuine.
“We cannot be very sure of the approval of this building as it is, whether it is genuine. We've been provided with some documents, which our team is currently analysing just to get to know whether the approvals were genuine or authentic and whether every step was followed according to the plans that were approved by the County Government of Kisumu,” Mariwa said.
The documents presented were incomplete, he said.
“The documents we have been given are partial. They are not complete documents, like the full plan approval that has the name of the developer. They are photos. We've not been given physical documents that we are able to verify,” he said.
Mariwa said authorities would check their records to establish whether the approvals were authentic.
“Our team is going to look into it and see if at all we have site records in our offices to determine whether this approval was genuine or authentic, or if it is fake,” he said.
Efforts to trace the building's owner were also ongoing, with authorities relying on the caretaker and an advocate to establish the proprietor.
Kisumu County Commissioner Ramadhan Mwabudzo said the immediate priority was to keep people away from the unstable structure.
“The building behind me began collapsing this morning. So far, tenants have been rescued. We've experienced around five injuries, minor injuries, and no fatalities,” Mwabudzo said.
He said the NCA team was conducting an assessment to determine the next course of action.
“The NCA team is on the ground, assessing the building and doing a thorough inspection to inform us on the next course of action,” he said.
Mwabudzo said the building appeared to have suffered problems at its foundation and warned developers to consider the nature of the soil before putting up multi-storey structures.
“Looking at this building, it's collapsing from the foundation. The foundation must have been very weak on one side,” he said.
He said the area had black cotton soil, which required proper excavation, backfilling and deep foundations.
“Proper excavation must always be done. Backfilling must be done as well. The foundation has to go very deep for the building to be able to remain firm on the ground,” he said.
The commissioner also called for inspections of buildings that had stalled before construction resumed.
“Buildings have to be inspected before construction resumes, particularly those which stalled for a very long time,” Mwabudzo said.
He noted that several other buildings were under construction in the surrounding area.
On the previous warnings, Mwabudzo said enforcement involved legal procedures and that demolition could not be carried out immediately after a warning.
“The process normally is long. When you issue a warning to bring down that building, you have to obtain some orders. It is not very easy because most of these owners normally fight back,” he said.
“Sometimes the process becomes lengthy before you get that approval, for example, to bring down the building.”
He said the immediate action was to condemn the building and ensure that nobody accessed it.
“The best we can do is to condemn the area and ensure that the safety of the tenants is guaranteed. Nobody accesses the building,” he said.
Mwabudzo later confirmed that a tenant initially reported missing was not inside the building when it collapsed.
“There was only one missing tenant, but we discovered that he was not inside. He was not in the house. His whereabouts have been confirmed to us; he is away,” he said.
The commissioner said the condition of the building made it impossible for tenants to safely return for their belongings.
“Now that the staircase has collapsed, how do we access the building? How can people access the building? It is impossible. So the building has to be brought down,” he said.
“We are only waiting for the report, and that one has to happen today. We can't allow people to risk their lives.”
The collapse has left dozens of tenants displaced, with their belongings trapped inside the building as authorities await a technical report to determine its fate.
