Tedious construction approval process fuelling building collapses

Engineer Elias Morang'a from NMS looks at the rubble of a nine-storey building in Kamukunji that collapsed in a picture taken on July 23, 2021. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

There has been a lot of debate in recent years as to the reasons behind increasing building collapses in the country. Is it unbridled greed among developers, alacrity for shortcuts, the inherent phase of ethics deficit we are going through as a country or even lack of diligence from the statutory authorities mandated to supervise the built environment?

The factors contributing to the collapse of buildings that we are witnessing are numerous and a majority of them is of our own making. However, not much has been talked about the effect of the bureaucratic, highly fragmented, and fractured construction approval system on the building collapses. Could this be a major contributing factor? I think so.