General News
Third Body Retrieved From Building That Collapsed In Mamboleo, Kisumu
A two-storey building under construction has collapsed in Mamboleo, Kisumu county. As at 5:47pm, three bodies have been retrieved from the collapsed building.
At least seven people have been rescued and taken to hospital. Several others were still trapped under the rubble.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing.
The National Construction Authority (NCA) has told The Standard that the collapsed building was inspected twice and activities at the site stopped in May 2021 over safety concerns. NCA however claims that the owner continued with construction behind their back and did not have approval.
Joseph Okeyo, a survivor, has told The Standard that the incident happened in a flash. “We did not anticipate what happened. We just heard a cracking sound and then the building collapsed,” he said.
Okeyo went on, “We were having lunch on site and I had just left her (food vendor) serving my colleagues before the incident happened.”
By 2pm an excavator was yet to arrive at the scene as firefighters and other rescue workers struggled to cut through the rubble.
Moments after the building collapsed, residents pulled a mother and a child who were crying from the building.
A few meters from where the building collapsed, several construction workers who escaped death by a whisker were still in shock. They were working on one side of the building that was left with large cracks following the collapse.
The incident comes as surveyors have raised an alarm over substandard houses being constructed in Nairobi.
A five-storey residential building in Kinoo, Kiambu County, was on September 6 brought down following orders from the county government and the NCA. The building was safely demolished under the supervision of engineers from NCA and officers from the county government.
NCA engineers inspected the site on September 3 and issued a stop order to the developer due to non-compliance. The authority, in a statement, said the building developed cracks and started crumbling due to foundation subsidence.
According to the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK), the developers sought the services of unlicensed persons to cut construction costs.
IQSK urged developers to avoid shortcuts when building houses to avert losses from collapsed or demolished buildings.
“The leaning five-story structure in Kinoo might have been averted if thorough compliance had been observed,” said IQSK president James Munene. He urged professionals to carry out their duties diligently.
Munene said all practitioners and respective authorities know why our buildings are collapsing.
“Equally, we all know what is at stake are human lives and loss of wealth. We need to get our act together,” he said.
According to IQSK Vice President Jenifer Musyimi, the earliest documented case of building collapse in Kenya was in 1990, where a multi-storeyed building in Dagoretti collapsed, killing one and injuring others.
She said since then, over 200 people have lost their lives and thousands injured in similar circumstances.
A Kakamega woman has admitted to murdering her husband after he disconnected their solar panel from her house and fitting it in her co-wife house.
Before the High Court in Kakamega, Joy Trizar Shitubi pleaded guilty to the charge of man-slaughtering her husband on October 26, 2017 at Emachoni village.
“I stabbed my husband Joseph Waboko Mbayi on the material date without malice aforethought,” said Shitubi who had entered a plea bargain deal with the prosecution to plead guilty for manslaughter instead of the more serious murder charge.
Narrating her ordinance, Shitubi explained she was preparing food for dinner when her husband, Mbayi came and disconnected the solar panel from her house and took it to the first wife’s house.
According to her, her husband later returned back and grabbed her by the neck and started strangling her when she protested against the action of snatching the solar panel from her and could not reveal where its charger was.
“I struggled to come out of the strangling but he hit me in the face and tried to grab the knife I was using to peel tomatoes from my hand,” she said. “Amidst the struggle I unfortunately happened to stab him with the knife in the chest fatally injuring him.”
Meanwhile, the sister to Mbayi, Ester, who witnessed the incident claims that her brother was provoked to start the fight when her sister-in-law could not reveal where she had kept the charger to the solar panel.
She confirmed that her brother hit Joy on the face with a fist and a struggle ensued between them leading to the fatal stab. The first wife said Mbayi went to her co-wife’s house and disconnected the solar plate that had initially been installed in her house. She added that after her husband returned the solar panel back to her house and went back to Shitubi’s house to collect the charger.
“I later heard screams of a child coming from the house and when I went, I found our husband lying on the floor with blood coming from his chest,” she said.
When cop Jael Kwamboka, from Mahondo Administration Police Post arrested Shitubi as Mbayi was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. According to autopsy report, the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest.
George Magoh, the Education Cabinet Secretary has urged school headmasters not sack students from school due to school fees arrears.
According to Magoh, before Friday government will drop the school capitation.
The Education Cabinet Secretary speaking at Kisii yesterday said no student will be sent home due to lack of school fees.
Mr George Magoh addressed a gathering at the launch of junior secondary school classrooms phase two at Kereri Girls.
“We are all sailing in the same boat where we are struggling with harsh economic times. The price of basic commodities has gone high and this affects all of us, even at the family level,” he said.
Mr Magoh made an appeal to school headmasters to use available resources to make sure that students remain in school.
“We have school feeding programmes in day schools, let us support those critical cases stay in school. We must admit the students to school and give parents an opportunity to pay school fees. Those of us who have already cleared paying fees for our children have gone an extra mile to pay fees for other needy cases, which is a welcome move,” he said.
According to him, the capitation programme changed because of the affected school calendar. “President Uhuru and my ministry will work extra hard to ensure that we have released the funds on time,” he said.
Magoha assured that government will soon finish the building of 10,000 junior secondary school classrooms on time.
“We will deliver the classrooms before we leave the office. No money that belongs to our children will go to waste,” he said.
A further 5,000 classrooms will be constructed. He warned private developers who have grabbed land belonging to schools.
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