Three people were killed after a perimeter wall collapsed at an active construction site in Riverside, Nairobi, on Saturday morning.
Eleven construction workers were rescued alive from the rubble and rushed to nearby medical facilities with severe injuries, according to police and Nairobi City County Government.
The county government said 39 workers were recorded at the site when the incident occurred at around 11:30am.
Fourteen workers had been accounted for and confirmed safe at the scene, while search and rescue teams were still working to establish the whereabouts of 11 others.
Preliminary assessments established that the main building was still at the excavation and foundation stage, with no upper floors having been erected when the perimeter wall gave way.
Multi-agency emergency response teams, including Nairobi County disaster management personnel and national emergency agencies, have cordoned off the area as search and rescue operations continue.
The county government said hospital admission checks and on-site accountability exercises were ongoing to establish the status of all workers listed in the site’s records.
Following the conclusion of rescue operations, the County Department of Built Environment and Urban Planning, working alongside the National Construction Authority (NCA), will conduct a comprehensive structural and regulatory compliance audit of the construction site.
Motorists and members of the public were urged to avoid the immediate Riverside area to allow emergency vehicles and heavy rescue equipment unhindered access.
County Chief Officer for Disaster Management and Coordination Bramwell Simiyu said rescue operations were ongoing.
Nairobi police boss Issa Mohamud said a team was on the ground to coordinate the rescue operations and conduct investigations.
“We have three fatalities and others are injured. We want to know what happened and how,” he said.
This came a day after a building under construction collapsed and killed six workers in Syokimau area, Nairobi County. Five people who sustained injuries were rescued for treatment at Scion Hospital, where they were reported to be in stable condition.
All 405 workers who were at the construction site at the time of the incident were accounted for, said County Commissioner, Nairobi East Were Simiyu.
He said the site had been closed and secured pending structural assessments and investigations by the relevant government agencies to establish the circumstances surrounding the collapse.
“We have experts at the scene to investigate how and why the incident happened. Action will be taken on those responsible,” he said.
He added most of the workers were still on the ground floor when the incident happened and this saved many lives.
The structure was under construction when it caved in on the upper floor.
This triggered an emergency response to the scene.
Police said the incident occurred on the ninth floor of the building during concreting works after a reported failure of the formwork, causing part of the structure to cave in.
Police and witnesses said three bodies were retrieved during initial morning operations and three additional bodies all middle-aged males, were recovered from the debris.
Nairobi police boss Issa Mohamud too said the teams had accounted for all the workers at the site.
Emergency response teams rushed to the scene to establish the circumstances surrounding the collapse, including the possibility of additional casualties.
The incident raised fresh concerns over construction site safety, particularly compliance with structural engineering standards and safety procedures during high-rise building works.
It comes weeks after an 18 storey building collapsed in Eastleigh, Nairobi and killed eight people.
The matter is under investigation for now.
The building, which was still under construction, collapsed along 9th Street on October 23, trapping several people beneath tonnes of concrete and debris. The operation faced significant challenges as emergency teams work to clear the remaining debris and reach the lower sections of the building.
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