Nine killed in city slum after mosque wall collapses
Nine people died and three are missing after the perimeter wall of the South B Mosque collapsed on shanties in Mukuru Fuata Nyayo slums on Monday night.
Eight other people were injured and taken to different hospitals after the 8pm tragedy.
Four of the casualties are still admitted.
Residents said the perimeter wall of the mosque is on a higher ground and fell on shops and kiosks during a heavy downpour that pounded the area on Monday.
COVERED WITH STONES
“I was with my grandson at my shed when I heard a loud bang followed by screams. When I looked behind me, everything was covered by stones,” said Ms Hellen Auma, a fish monger at Fuata Nyayo.
Hellen’s grandson, Michael Otieno, 4, who had joined his grandmother after school, was buried under the concrete.
His body was retrieved at 2am. “I am sad that he died this way” she said.
Another business woman, Elizabeth Ndung’e said she had lost two workers.
Makadara police chief Nehemiah Langat said seven bodies were taken from the scene on Monday night while two others were retrieved from the rubble on Tuesday.
Among those who died were two children, four women and three men.
The rescue was slowed down by heavy rains and a large crowd that gathered at the scene.
The heavy rains pounding the country also caused the death of a woman on Tuesday.
Ms Mary Atieno, 53, drowned on Monday evening when she slipped as she was crossing a tunnel near Jogoo Road.
Her friend Annah Achieng, told the police that Ms Atieno had visited her in Makongeni and as they walked towards the bus station, where she was to board a bus to Dandora, Ms Atieno fell into the tunnel.
Also, the diversion that was recently opened for heavy commercial vehicles to access the Southern Bypass was almost impassable on Tuesday following heavy night rains the previous night.
Motorists spent hours on the two-and-half kilometre stretch.
In Nyeri, the floods have displaced 48 families.
Learning at some schools like Macharia primary was paralysed after students woke up to flooded classrooms and playing fields.
Source: Daily Nation