Death by design: Why Kenya's building crisis is far from over

The scenario is all very familiar. A building collapses somewhere in Kenya. Within hours, rescue teams descend on a mountain of concrete, searching for survivors.

In a makeshift structure, worried family members huddle together, waiting for names, answers and perhaps a miracle that their loved ones will turn up alive.

Sadly, some do not make it and the search-and-rescue efforts turn into a search-and-recovery exercise.

Then come the speeches, followed by denials of responsibility. Politicians promise “speedy” investigations but forget about these as soon as the news crews leave the scene.

A stream of press statements inundates media houses with experts in the built environment and industry demanding accountability while each group within the construction chain denies any culpability.

Then, another building collapses somewhere else, and the cycle begins again.

Like others before it, the latest building collapse in Eastleigh was yet another piece of evidence of a system that religiously identifies dangerous construction processes, issues stop orders, yet somehow construction continues until disaster strikes.

When another building collapsed in Nairobi’s South C on January 2 this year, the Nairobi County authorities were quick to point out all the infractions committed.

For example, the building, which was categorised by the National Construction Authority as “non-compliant”, was meant to rise to 12 floors but by the time it came tumbling down, it was up to 16 floors.

Along Kabiria Road in Riruta, a building was recently evacuated due to serious structural defects, including a large crack in one of the walls and reports of a loud bang from the seventh floor, raising fears that the building was unsafe for occupation.

After inspections by county engineers and enforcement officers, the structure was declared unfit for human habitation, with 90 families ordered to vacate immediately.

Authorities also cited alleged non-compliance with planning and building regulations.

Investigations into collapsed buildings and near misses reveal familiar patterns.

In some cases, buildings exceed approved heights, putting strain on weight-bearing columns.

Unauthorised design changes leave little room for other amenities such as parking, while weak supervision and enforcement failures leave future occupants at the mercy of unscrupulous developers.

However, construction experts say Kenya does not have a shortage of building laws to curb such illegal behaviour, only a shortage of consequences.

Irene Aguttu, an architect and chairperson of Kilimani Community Foundation, says the recurring collapse of buildings in Kenya is not merely a construction industry problem but a national governance, public safety and urban planning crisis.

She noted that the current concerns extend beyond the structural integrity of individual buildings to the integrity of the entire development approval, construction supervision and enforcement framework.

“A building does not suddenly become unsafe on the day it collapses,” she says. “In many cases, structural failure is preceded by warning signs, regulatory lapses, professional negligence, unauthorised alterations or failures in supervision that may have developed over months or years.”

She says interrogations should go beyond the reasons for the collapse, but why such potentially unsafe developments are permitted to proceed, why enforcement notices are sometimes disregarded, and why institutions entrusted with protecting the public frequently appear unable to prevent foreseeable disasters.

Where developers have gone rogue, some statutory bodies such as the National Construction Authority (NCA) and county governments have acted to stop questionable developments, but more often than not, their actions, including the famous “X” markings, have done little to deter such developers.

However, Aguttu says that while regulatory agencies may issue such enforcement notices, developers may regard them as temporary inconveniences rather than binding directives unless they are followed by effective site monitoring, lawful sanctions and prompt legal action. 

“There are legitimate concerns that some developers may benefit from compromised approval processes, political protection or improper influence over enforcement decisions. Such allegations must be independently investigated rather than presumed in individual cases. Nevertheless, the perception that enforcement can be negotiated undermines public confidence in the entire regulatory system,” she says.

A past NCA report, entitled Research on Failure and Collapse of Buildings in Kenya, analysed the key legislation relating to the building and construction industry while identifying the gaps between them.

It showed that while the industry is heavily regulated at the national and county government levels, most of the legal bodies only act within a specific scope of the industry, with no single-stop centre to coordinate the activities.

Apart from NCA, other statutory bodies include the National Environment Management Authority, National Building Inspectorate, Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

Professionals in the industry, such as architects and quantity surveyors, are registered by the Board of the Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors.

Other legal frameworks include the Physical and Land Use Planning Act 2019, the Public Health Act, the Building Code, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2007.  

In addition, the report decried the “overlapping mandates with County Governments, particularly in inspection of buildings and their role in building control,” while the NCA “lacks full mandate to standardise and improve construction techniques and materials”.

Other entities, including county governments, lack “technical capacity to check building safety as far as construction process is concerned”.

In an interview with a local media house following the Eastleigh building collapse, Prof Alfred Omenya, a sustainability architect, said construction inspection rarely achieves the intended purposes but is often used as a means to extort the developer.

“If you try to paint your bedroom, there will be an enforcement officer who will not be interested in the quality of your paint but in seeing whether he can make money out of you,” he said. “When they come to the site, they hardly check whether what is being built is what was approved.”

Omenya opined that there is no way an 18-storey building that never conformed to building regulations could rise that high without concerned authorities taking note.

“If an elephant walked through here, we would all see it. An 18-storey building is like stacking over 10 elephants on top of each other. Where are the regulators when buildings of that scale are coming up all over?” he asked.

Aguttu says that such poorly designed or inadequately supervised excavations, unsafe structural works and non-compliant construction can endanger neighbouring properties, occupants, pedestrians and construction workers.

Deep excavations, she adds, may compromise adjoining foundations, cause ground movement or damage boundary walls and nearby buildings if appropriate geotechnical investigations and protective measures are not undertaken.

In the end, she says Kenya cannot continue mobilising extraordinary resources to retrieve victims from collapsed buildings while failing to invest adequately in the systems intended to prevent those collapses, adding that preventive inspections, early intervention and effective enforcement must become national priorities. 

“There must be a comprehensive audit of ongoing high-risk and high-rise construction across Nairobi, prioritising developments with disputed approvals, documented structural concerns, unauthorised additional floors, ignored enforcement notices or inadequate professional supervision,” she says.

“We are not opposed to investment, urban renewal or densification. We support responsible development that respects the law, protects human life, safeguards existing investments and provides adequate infrastructure for future generations.