Survivors of a building collapse in Karen, Nairobi, on Saturday evening, have given chilling accounts of the moments when a routine workday turned into tragedy, leaving two of their colleagues dead and seven others injured.
Michael Mwago said he was mixing concrete on the top of the building when everything suddenly went wrong.
“The building twisted and came down as if it buried all of us,” he recalled.
From that moment, he said, he was shocked and became confused as the structure collapsed beneath them, burying some of them alive.
Mwago was fortunate to survive, though metal bars pinned his legs.
“By God’s grace, God helped me," he said
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He said two of his colleagues were buried under concrete and died instantly, while others suffered broken limbs and severe injuries.
“They were carried by ambulance and taken to the hospital,” he said, adding that at one point they were told to wait for help, but the ambulances were delayed in arriving.
Two workers escaped unhurt after managing to get out from the side of another floor that was not affected by the collapse.
The National Disaster Management Unit Director, Dancun Ochieng', who led the rescue operations, said the injured were rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital, with two critically ill.
He said investigations had been launched to determine the cause of the tragedy.
“This is an accident," he said. “We will determine the cause, and if anybody is found culpable, they will be answerable to the law."
Oscar Kwemoi, another survivor, who had been bandaged on his left leg, said they were almost finishing the day's task when the building suddenly crumbled.
“It turned and fell, trapping us underneath,” he said. Those on the ground rushed to help, cutting through metal bars to rescue the trapped workers.
“The building crashed all at once; we found ourselves covered underneath,” he said.
Kwemoi said he is grateful to be alive but devastated by the loss of a close friend. “I have lost my very close friend, like my own brother,” he said.
He described how the structure fell while they were working on the second floor on the gutter beam.
Debris struck his friend on the head and ribs, killing him instantly.
Simon Seno echoed the shock shared by many survivors: “We were just up there working and mixing concrete when suddenly we found ourselves on the ground,” he said.
The tragedy comes barely a week after a similar incident occurred in South C, claiming the lives of two security guards manning the building under construction.
Authorities have largely been blamed for the incidents, bringing the construction authorising agencies into sharp scrutiny.
"This is very unfortunate that a second building has collapsed just when we are investigating courses fo collapsed building in South C," lamented Nairobi County Chief Officer for Urban Planning, Patrick Analo.
"You can clearly see there is no signage as required by the law to show who the developer is, who the project engineer and contractor are," he added.
Mr. Analo further observed that what had collapsed was the formwork as the workers tried to cast a slab.
"The law requires that when you have a slab, you must have it inspected first. It appears that was not done," he said.