Faulty approvals and bribery blamed for South C building collapse

 Search efforts at a collapsed building in Nairobi's South C estate along Muhoho avenue. [Benard Orwongo, Standard]

As investigators probe the cause of the South C building collapse, two professional bodies in the construction sector have exposed the opaque and compromised approval systems used by county governments.

The Architects Alliance (TAA) and the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) raised concerns over the construction control regime in counties, which they said has been marred by corruption and revenue-driven approvals, often ignoring structural safety.

Both professional organizations asserted that most collapses are foreseeable and preventable, but approvals have been reduced to paperwork exercises, negotiable inspections and delayed or absent site inspections.

The 14-storey building, including a ground floor and basement, collapsed on Friday morning, trapping at least two people. By Tuesday evening, rescuers had recovered only one body.

According to engineers and architects, the disaster was preventable if the approvals followed rigorous professional scrutiny. Instead, they claimed that the approvals are mainly transactional, greased by bribery.

“Over many years, TAA has formally warned national and county governments that Nairobi’s development control regime has become dangerously compromised,” said Dr Sylvia Kasanga, the president of TAA.

According to Architect Kasanga, the Alliance has engaged both the national and Nairobi City County governments on supervision capacity and planning coordination, repeatedly raising red flags that have gone unaddressed.

“The measure of a regulatory system is not how harshly it punishes failure after lives are lost, but how effectively it prevents failure before tragedy occurs,” said Kasanga in a statement released on Monday.

The architects’ group stated that the South C tragedy demands more than sympathy but truth, accountability and systemic correction.

“TAA states without equivocation that building collapses are not accidents. They are the foreseeable outcome of systemic failures in governance, particularly in approvals, inspections, supervision and enforcement,” added the Alliance’s president.

The architects’ concerns were reiterated by the Engineers association through their president Dr Shammah Kiteme, who stated that county approval systems have been severely abused, with safety controls and checks often being reduced to a revenue-collection exercise rather than a professional vetting process.

Dr Kiteme accused county governments, particularly Nairobi City County, of enabling corruption and impunity that undermines professionalism in the construction sector.

The Engineers’ president said approval processes are often deliberately delayed to seek bribes, hence compromising quality controls and accountability.

Enforcement failure

IEK, he said, has previously appeared before the Nairobi County Assembly to protest corruption within the county executive and approval departments.

“We have been fighting for proper processes in Nairobi County because approvals take forever and bribes are often required to get them done. It’s a myriad of p Engineer Dr. Shammah Kiteme, the IEK president, roblems we’ve created as a society and sadly, we are now paying the price,” Kiteme lamented.

Dr Kiteme stated that under the law, every development should have an accredited architect, structural engineer, mechanical and electrical engineers formally on record and retained on site to ensure accountability and safety, a requirement, he said, counties routinely ignore.

In the case of the South C tragedy that also compromised the structural integrity of the adjacent buildings, the architects stated that it exposed institutional failures, including compromised approval processes, administrative impunity and bribery, weak political accountability, and a culture of selective enforcement.

“The Governor of Nairobi City County bears ultimate responsibility for a development control system that has repeatedly allowed unlawful and unsafe buildings to rise despite professional warnings,” said Dr Kasanga.

TAA stated that illegal developments are allowed to proceed “not because they are compliant, but because enforcement can be delayed, negotiated or ignored.

Further, architects faulted the National Construction Authority (NCA) for what they termed as “chronic enforcement failure” in contractor licensing mechanisms, inability to police sites effectively, failure to deregister non-compliant contractors and the absence of meaningful consequences for repeat offenders.

Kasanga further said the Board of Registration of Architects & Quantity Surveyors (BORAQS) has failed to decisively stem the widespread practice of unregistered, unsupervised or proxy practice, eroding professional accountability and public trust.

The concerns raised by the professional construction bodies were reinforced by developers Abyan Consulting Limited, who disclosed that approval for the disputed four floors was granted midway through construction. The application for Nairobi City County Physical & Land Use Planning Approval was submitted on October 18, 2023, and approved on December 19, 2023. The Certificate of Compliance from the National Construction Authority (NCA) was issued on November 8, 2023, while the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) license from NEMA followed on February 16, 2024.

A year later, the developers applied for three additional floors on January 31, 2025, and approval was granted within two weeks.

Engineer Kiteme condemned the widespread practice of credential hiring, where developers use professional licenses solely to obtain approvals without retaining engineers for supervision. He noted that in 2024, 61 percent of 277 approved buildings relied on credentials from just three engineers, highlighting a cartel of ghost engineers.

Developers often sideline engineers post-approval, leaving them blamed for failures they did not oversee. Kiteme added that the South C collapse, approved for 12 floors, could not safely support the added floors without professional involvement.He also raised concerns over unqualified labor, zoning violations, and inadequate infrastructure in high-rise conversions.

Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome vowed action against culpable contractors and architects. Experts argue the crisis stems from systemic flaws in approval offices. TAA demands full disclosure of all approvals, inspections, and compliance records.