Building collapse in Kenya near Nairobi kills six | Infrastructure news

Following a similar accident three weeks ago, the incident is spurring calls for better safety oversight on construction sites.

The collapse of an unfinished eight-story building in Kenya has killed six people.

The structure fell on Friday morning in Syokimau, a suburb of Nairobi. Following a similar recent incident in the capital, the accident has reignited calls for increased safety oversight.

According to a preliminary report from the Nairobi County Emergency Team, construction workers were at the site when the building’s topmost concrete slab gave way, causing part of the structure to fall. The report did not establish why the slab failed.

The Kenya Red Cross initially reported that three people had been rescued and one person was missing. Television reports later reported that five people had been pulled alive from the rubble and taken to hospital.

The emergency report said the number of workers present when the building fell has not been confirmed, leaving open the possibility that others were trapped.

Firefighters and specialist rescue teams continued to search for survivors.

Patrick Makau, a member of Kenya’s parliament representing Mavoko, the constituency that includes Syokimau, urged relief agencies in a social media post to act quickly.

“Every second counts,” he wrote, offering his condolences to the families of the victims.

The accident followed a similar deadly building collapse in the city on October 23, which claimed the lives of eight people. Both disasters prompted calls for tighter construction controls.

The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, a state research agency, has identified poor quality workmanship, inadequate supervision, substandard materials and faulty designs as the main causes of building collapses.