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3 feared dead after building collapses in Kisii
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 18 June 2009 05:40
Witnesses reported seeing at least 10 construction workers trapped between building blocks. There were frantic scenes after a freak downpour forced rescuers to suspend their operation. Relatives of the victims, some communicating to their kin by mobile phone, milled the scene in Kisii town.
Nyanza deputy police boss Larry Kieng’ told the Nation that it was unclear how many people were in the building at the time it collapsed. “We do not want to speculate, I do not want to say that there were 10 or five. All I know is that four people were rescued while one has been confirmed dead.”
He was reacting to claims by a section of the members of the public that the death toll could be as high as 10. Mr Kieng’ said that structural engineers had been dispatched to the scene to investigate the cause of the disaster. “The engineers are going to give us a report on what could have happened before we possibly prefer charges against any body,” he said.
A man believed to be the owner of the premises took off after members of the public threatened to lynch him. Saturday’s incident took place at about 2 pm, when the top floors came tumbling down, trapping the masons who were working on the ground floor.
The Kisii disaster is the latest in a series of such incidents, which have raised questions about enforcement of the building code. A building in downtown Nairobi collapsed in January. There were several other such incidents last year. The most serious collapse in recent times occurred in 2006 when a building with over 280 construction workers in Nairobi came down, killing nine.
There was drama in Kisii town after residents who were fetching water at a stream near the scene of the collapse screamed after the ill fated building came down. Workers of a road construction Company H Young, abandoned their work and offered four earthmovers to help in the rescue operation. Four ambulances were also at hand to rush those rescued to hospital
