Africa-Press – Kenya. One person is feared trapped after a building under construction came crumbling down in the Majengo area of Mombasa County.
The Monday, November 11, morning incident saw the storey building, which had barely reached the first floor, collapse on one side.
Confirming the incident, the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement that two people had been rescued while one person remained trapped under the rubble. No deaths were reported at the time of publishing this article.
“A multi-agency response team, including the Kenya Police, County Government of Mombasa, and the Kenya Red Cross, is currently conducting search and rescue operations,” a statement from the Red Cross read.
Images of the scene shed more light on the extent of the damage with construction workers gathered around the rubble, presumably in an attempt to rescue their colleague.
The cause of the building’s collapse is yet to be established, although images of the scene of the incident suggest the upcoming building’s integrity was not solid enough.
The Mombasa County Lands and Housing Department is yet to comment on the latest incident, which took place more than a year after a four-storey building near the Mackinnon Market in Mombasa County collapsed on Saturday, May 27, 2023, just one day after it was declared unsafe for occupation.
Days prior, residents of Marikiti area voiced their complaints of several unsafe buildings in the area.
The Majengo building collapse further highlighted the potential dangers tenants are subjected to every day while occupying multi-storey structures.
The Majengo collapse also comes at a time when the weatherman predicts rains in several parts of the country. Rains in Nairobi, Kiambu and other counties which boast tens of towering buildings pose a risk, particularly towards poorly-constructed structures.
In a separate incident in October 2024, an eight-story illegal structure suddenly collapsed in Nairobi, with Kahawa West residents capturing the incident on video. No one was injured from the incident since the building was marked for demolition.
Nairobi Deputy Governor James Muchiri later issued a statement clarifying that experts had issued warnings to residents in the weeks leading up to the crumble.
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