Engineers demand safety audits as Kenya counts deaths from collapsing buildings

Engineers have warned that inadequate supervision, weak inspections, and widespread professional negligence continue to expose Kenyans to unsafe structures.

They called for the immediate enactment of the External Building Audit Act to introduce mandatory independent building assessments and curb fatal collapses across the country.

Speaking during the media launch of the upcoming IEK International Convention, IEK President Harrison Keter said that Kenya must urgently bolster its monitoring systems, enforce strict compliance, and hold developers alongside rogue professionals directly accountable when structural failures occur.

“Statutory independent audits are vital to identify hidden structural defects, verify that ongoing construction matches approved designs, and pinpoint clear legal responsibility—especially as existing state regulatory agencies struggle to oversee the rapidly expanding volume of construction projects across the nation,” said Keter.

Research by the (NCA) documented 87 building failures and collapses in Kenya between 1990 and 2018, while a comprehensive 2018 audit of 14,925 buildings by the National Building Inspectorate (NBI) categorised 723 structures as "very dangerous" and another 10,791 as "unsafe."

Recent data from the Architectural Association of Kenya’s (AAK) Status of the Built Environment Report 2025 shows persistent inspection gaps.

The NBI audited just 396 buildings in 2025—a drastic drop from 20,649 in 2024—and of those inspected in 2025, a staggering 87 percent failed to meet required safety standards or lacked statutory approvals. Furthermore, the NCA issued 13,348 suspension-of-work notices in 2025 alone, while rejecting 1,125 project-registration applications and approving 4,687 as compliant.

The catastrophic human and financial consequences of regulatory non-compliance were demonstrated in January 2026, when a building under construction collapsed in Nairobi’s South C estate.

NCA investigations established that while the project had received approval for 12 storeys, the developers illegally added four extra floors beyond the approved structural designs.

Addressing these lapses, Keter noted that the root challenge lies not in a lack of legislation, but in the enforcement agencies' inability to maintain consistent site oversight.

He expressed deep concern over licensed engineers being assigned responsibility for hundreds of projects simultaneously, warning that such extreme workloads severely compromise supervision quality.

To address this, Keter advocated for greater reliance on independent consulting engineers and formal mechanisms to ensure strict accountability for everyone approving and supervising developments.

Government echoed the urgent need for structural reforms within the sector stating that the construction industry must aggressively tackle the involvement of unqualified practitioners, substandard supervision, and the deliberate disregard of approved construction procedures.

"I urge developers, contractors, and technical professionals to strictly adhere to design standards, because professional regulatory boards must actively investigate misconduct and take punitive disciplinary action against practitioners who betray their professional obligations,” said State Department for Roads Principal Secretary Joseph Mbugu.

Simultaneously, they highlighted technology as a vital lever to bridge enforcement gaps and compensate for acute inspector shortages.

“Deploying intelligent digital systems will improve data collection, facilitate real-time project monitoring, and empower regulators to flag non-compliant developments before they turn into fatal disasters,” said State Department for ICT and the Digital Economy Principal Secretary, John Kipchumba Tanui.

Digital platforms would allow authorities to dynamically verify ongoing construction against approved plans and track inspection logs seamlessly. However, digital adoption remains severely constrained; the AAK report revealed that only eight counties had functional online permitting systems in 2025, with several operating inconsistently.

The report further estimated that professional services are utilized in merely 20 percent of all construction projects nationwide, exposing a massive reliance on unverified expertise.