The many unanswered questions surrounding collapsed building
National
By
Jacinta Mutura
| Jan 04, 2026
Officers from 1st Canine Regiment use sniffer dogs to comb through the debris of the collapsed building in South C, Nairobi, on January 3, 2026. [Benard Orwongo, Standard]
More than 40 hours after a high-rise building collapsed in Nairobi’s South C estate, trapping four people, rescue teams had yet to retrieve a single body, raising questions about the country’s disaster preparedness and response capacity.
There has also been no arrests made despite glaring misconduct and mismanagement of the project leading to deaths.
By the time of going to press, the whereabouts of the two developers of the building were unclear.
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National Construction Authority (NCA) executive director Maurice Akech said the building was being developed by a company called Abyan Consulting Limited.
The company is owned by Yussuf Mohamed Yussuf and Abdishakur Muse Mohamed Yusuf. It was the same company that also served as the contractor.
By last evening, there were no reports of their arrest or whether they had recorded statements.
Duncan Ochieng, the director of the National Disaster Management Unit and incident commander at the site, said the rescue and search operation is highly technical, making it difficult to give a clear timeline for its completion.
“We cannot give a definite timeline because this is technical in nature and so many factors are involved, including serviceability of the equipment. We are also considering the structural integrity of the adjacent building. Let us be patient,” said Dr Ochieng.
Questions have also emerged concerning the offices charged with prevention of disaster and supervision on construction buildings in the Nairobi City county government.
Despite public admission that the Nairobi City county government had issued stop orders to the contractors and the owner of the collapsed building, no one has been arrested or recorded statements for allowing the continuity of the illegal structure.
Public Service and Special Programmes Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku said the building was approved for only 12 floors, yet it went up to 16 floors, including the basement and the ground floor, at the time of collapse.
The county government had issued a stop order on August 11, 2025 citing non-compliance but the order was defied, raising questions over which actions followed the defiance.
On Friday, county officials acknowledged that the site had been subjected to enforcement actions on diverse dates in May, July and December 2025 over various infractions, yet construction continued uninterrupted.
By last evening, no county official, inspector, enforcement officer, architect, engineer or developer had recorded a statement with investigators.
Further, no professional body had announced any disciplinary action and no explanation had been given for why an illegal building was allowed to stand until it killed people.
While CS Ruku said that there were no approvals for the additional floors that were constructed, there is no explanation on who cleared the continued construction, who signed off progress inspections, or why penalties prescribed under the Physical and Land Use Planning Act were not enforced.
Fresh details have emerged pointing to contradictions and inconsistencies in the approval process surrounding the collapsed building.
According to a source privy to the investigations, the developers submitted amendments on January 31, 2025, seeking approval to add three additional floors and approved in less than two weeks later, on February 13, 2025.
Further, the source, who sought anonymity, claimed that minor internal alterations on the lower ground, the first and second floors were submitted on September 12, 2025, and approved in November 2025.
The new details basically suggest that the developers obtained further architectural approvals from the county government, even as the project was under a stop order.