Death in Kilimani: Construction worker dies after falling from 14th floor
A man died on Tuesday, December 19, evening fell from the 14th floor of a building under construction in Nairobi’s Kilimani area.
The man identified as David Otieno 40, was among casual labourers at the Jabavu Residency when he slipped and fell off.
This is the latest incident to occur on a construction site, amid calls for safety measures to protect workers on such sites.
The deceased was rushed to Nairobi Women’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.
“But we are investigating other issues that may have led to his death,” police said.
Workers at the scene were briefly questioned as part of the probe into the incident.
In Kenya, most workers die in such conditions, and little is done to compensate or take action on issues of negligence on the part of the contractors.
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The latest incident comes a month after a junior officer at the Nairobi City County government was put in the spotlight that he has been providing building approvals without the knowledge of the county officials.
Mr Frederick Ochanda, the Acting Assistant Director of Development Control, astonished members of the county assembly when he informed the committee he had approved the construction of close to 600 building applications without the knowledge of the CEC Stephen Mwangi and Chief Officer Patrick Analo.
While appearing before the Nairobi City County Assembly’s planning committee, Mr Ochanda claimed to have received the powers to approve building construction from the county governor after he was appointed into the office in August.
According to the Physical and Land Planning Act, the County Chief Officer is responsible for approving building plans.
However, Mr Ochanda told the committee he receives applications from developers, which he later submits to the Urban Planning Technical Committee, which later goes through them before providing approvals.
The assembly probe follows allegations by the Architecture Association of Kenya (AAK) and residents over a flawed building approval system operated by the county assembly.
AAK has accused the county government of intentionally sabotaging the building approval system necessitating the use of manual approval systems by the county.
Different resident associations had also complained about the change of users by the county government.