Strictly enforce rules to enhance building safety

Yet another catastrophic collapse of a multi-storey building under construction in Nairobi has raised the question of whether any lessons have been learnt from the past fatal incidents. Several people were injured in the Friday incident, and more were reported missing.

The building in the Eastleigh area, which has recently seen the construction of numerous high-rise apartment blocks, is a wake-up call to the authorities to enforce construction approvals and regulations more strictly.

The Ombudsman not long ago exposed unlawful approvals, negligence, and weak enforcement at a residential high-rise development project in this commercially vibrant neighbourhood. This has brought into focus the harsh reality of the criminal laxity and negligence in enforcing structural safety and regulatory measures. There are reports that some businesses were actually operating on the lower floors of the building while construction continued above in blatant violation of safety rules.

This incident once again underscores the systemic failures in the enforcement of regulations that critics and industry experts such as the Architectural Association of Kenya have frequently blamed following similar past tragedies.

A recurring danger in the densely populated commercial zones such as Eastleigh is the practice of allowing tenants to occupy finished lower floors while heavy construction continues directly overhead. This drastically escalates the human risk.

Investigations into previous building collapses such as the one in Nairobi’s South C that killed several people have revealed that some developers add unauthorised extra floors beyond what the original architectural plans and county structural approvals allowed.

The rapid pace of development routinely outpaces the enforcement of building regulations, or some officials are bribed to allow deviations, and the use of poor-quality materials.

The recurrence of these disasters leaves the county and national regulatory bodies facing immense scrutiny over why stricter monitoring and structural integrity checks are not being executed. The regulations must be enforced to make buildings safer.

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