More unsafe buildings in Nairobi to be demolished
City Hall has earmarked over 200 buildings in Nairobi for demolition terming them unsafe for human occupation while a further 688 structures warrant inspection.
Governor Mike Sonko has said that an audit report on buildings conducted by Nairobi City Inspectorate Department revealed that several buildings evaluated in selected estates in Nairobi between the months of January and February this year were found to be in “urgent need of inspection.”
He stated that the primarily investigations indicated that only 884 structures are considered safe for habitation compared to 471 houses that have been deemed unfit for occupancy and warrant critical inspection.
In addition, about 217 buildings need to be attended to immediately and have been marked very dangerous for tenancy, while another 688 structures need to be urgently investigated.
“These are some of the structures which were approved by rogue county officials. We will not allow human life to be put at risk by greedy individuals. My administration is carrying out the exercise of bringing down all illegal structures,” said Sonko.
Wednesday, City Hall embarked on demolition of substandard buildings in Zimmerman and Roysambu following a rise in cases of building collapsing in Nairobi in recent years.
According to the Buildings Inspectorate in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development several buildings in Nairobi County have been marked unsafe for human occupation.
CASUALTIES
Statistics from the ministry indicate that close to 100 people have been killed in buildings debris, and more than 290 injured between 2017-2018.
Last week, a five-storey building under construction in Juja, Nairobi collapsed.
Barely 48 hours after that incident, another building caved-in in Ruai estate near the Eastern bypass where a number of people were trapped in the debris.
On March 15, Nairobi county government authorities and police warned residents, particularly in the informal settlements, to vacate houses marked for demolition to avoid disasters.
The increasing collapses have been blamed on the ongoing heavy rains.
On March 10, a building collapsed in Kariobangi.
All residents who lived in the four-storey building were evacuated before the collapse and no casualties were reported.
In January this year, two people died when a building they were demolishing at Stage Mpya in Pipeline Estate collapsed.
Seven other people were injured and were admitted to different hospitals in the city.