Eastleigh collapse: Nairobi families have kept vigil at the rubble for four days

What happened

On Friday, 23 October, a multi-storey building still under construction collapsed on 9th Street in Eastleigh. According to The Star, 67 construction workers were on site; Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said all were accounted for, one of them injured. However, eleven shops on the ground floor and in the basement were open at the time.

By Sunday, four survivors had been rescued and taken to hospital. Rescuers, including specialised teams, are concentrating on the basement, where several people are believed to have sheltered. Government spokesperson Charles Owino said on Monday that about half of the debris had been cleared. According to Capital FM, the authorities have not provided a complete, updated count of those missing.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has ordered criminal investigators to examine whether the developer, contractors or county officials were negligent. Governor Johnson Sakaja said the building had planning approval but no occupation certificate.

The mood on the ground

Waiting defines daily life at the site. Since Friday, relatives have spent days and nights at the cordon, hoping for good news at every briefing and supporting one another. A woman whose sister had gone to one of the shops to buy fabric told The Eastleigh Voice that the family is praying for a breakthrough.

Many feel the recovery is too slow but understand that rescue teams must work carefully. What frustrates them most is that only a few relatives are allowed to stay nearby. According to the Eastleigh Voice, the authorities had also not issued any new information for two days.

It is also unclear how many people are affected: families were initially told about seven people were trapped, but relatives now fear the number is much higher as new missing-person reports keep coming in. The Swahili daily Taifa Leo led on Sunday with the anxious question of how many will still be rescued. The Sunday Nation spoke of merchants of impunity and questioned building oversight in Nairobi.

Voices from the media