Are we safe? Over 90 buildings are unsafe in Nairobi – Architectural Association says
The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) has said that more than 300 buildings in Nairobi have been tested and inspected to determine whether they are safe for occupation.
The same inspection has been carried out and is ongoing in other towns, according to AAK President Wilson Mugambi.
Speaking in Nairobi on Friday while reacting to the recent cases of houses collapsing, Mr. Mugambi said that some of the houses had been earmarked as unsafe, but the developers continued with the construction secretly, some being concluded at night.
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“It is a multiagency exercise that has been going on and the buildings that you are seeing now collapsing they have already visited and even marked them. So it is really an issue of impunity and we have to deal with it from that end,” Mr. Mugambi said.
“I don’t have the exact number in my mind at the moment but I know that we have marked over 90 buildings in Nairobi alone that something needs to be done and a few of them needs to be brought down.”
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He also said that most of such buildings are in areas such as Eastlands where there are a lot of development activities.
“Especially those sides of Eastland and so forth, especially the newer estates where there is a lot of construction going on and we have visited those areas and marked those buildings that are unsafe.”
According to Mr. Mugambi, the National Construction Authority (NCA) has stopped most of the unsafe buildings.
“You find some building has been stopped but people are coming to build at night…we must address the question when they are building at night where are we.”
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Nairobi, Kiambu, and its neighbouring towns are leading with the number of buildings marked for improvement or demolition.
According to Mr. Mugambi, some of the buildings have been approved by fake engineers, and such construction site does not have any signboard because there is no name for the genuine engineer.
“We had a lot of fake approvals, where somebody after drawings have been done for them, then they go outside there and start implementing without the professionals.”
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