Over 10,000 buildings in Kenya are death traps

IEK President Shammah Kiteme warns rogue developers, weak enforcement are turning Kenya’s buildings into deadly traps. [File,Standard]

Kenya's construction industry is riddled with corrupt officials, unqualified engineers and rogue developers who are turning city buildings into death traps, Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) President Eng. Shammah Kiteme has warned.

Speaking during an interview on Spice FM on Tuesday, March 24, Kiteme called for a national building register to protect tenants, as data shows the crisis has festered for years with little resolution.

His remarks come less than three months after a 14-storey  building under construction collapsed in Nairobi's South C estate on January 2, triggering fresh alarm over the state of the country's construction sector.

The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) found the South C project exhibited multiple regulatory breaches, including the issuance of National Construction Authority (NCA) registration before securing mandatory approvals from the Nairobi City County Government and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).

A 2022 NCA audit placed the blame on poor workmanship and non-compliance with standards, finding that 10,791 out of 14,895 buildings sampled were marked as unsafe for occupancy and needed either reinforcement or demolition.

Kenya recorded 87 building collapses over five years, with an estimated 200 people killed and over 1,000 injured.

Kiteme identified the developer as the single greatest point of failure in the regulatory chain.

"The developer initiates everything, and if they refuse to pay professionals or attempt to cut corners during the approval phase, the entire project is compromised from the start," he warned.

He outlined the multi-layered approval process that all construction projects must complete before work begins.

The process starts at the county level, where architectural and structural drawings must be cleared by departments covering public health, fire safety and structural engineering.

Developers must then obtain a certificate of compliance from the NCA.

Projects near water bodies require clearance from the Water Resources Authority (WRA) to manage drainage and prevent flooding, while those near highways or airports must involve the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) or Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).

Kiteme said structural engineers bore a duty of care to verify soil conditions, concrete mix designs and the grade of steel and cement used on site.

"We know there are challenges with materials. We have all the data and know where the problem lies. The right actions must be taken at all levels and approvals should not be granted when they do not qualify," he noted.

He also flagged poor land demarcation as a driver of flooding.

"If we fail in how we demarcate land, that becomes the genesis of many problems including flooding," Kiteme observed.

To plug the transparency gap, he proposed a national building register modelled on the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) vehicle records system, where the public could verify whether a building was designed by registered professionals and issued a certificate of occupation.

The Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) has previously proposed a similar nationwide e-permit system, noting that Nairobi County's e-construction permit system had already achieved a measurable reduction in the number of building collapses.

Kiteme acknowledged that enforcement remained weak, noting that while the NCA and county inspectors could issue stop orders, follow-up after buildings were marked unsafe continued to lag.

"We have democratised the construction industry to the point where anyone wants to be an expert," he added.

The pattern is longstanding. A building in Huruma Estate, Nairobi, collapsed in 2016, leaving more than 37 people dead. A structure in Kiambu County caved in on September 26, 2022, and another collapsed in Juja Road Estate, Eastleigh, leaving four dead.

Professional bodies, including the IEK, have demanded scrutiny of officials in Nairobi County's Urban Planning Department, the NCA and all agencies involved in approving projects that subsequently collapse.