He said the workers were excavating the sand when it collapsed on them, killing two of them. Three others were wounded and are admitted to hospital/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 18 – The contractor of a building where two workers were killed and three others wounded when a heap of sand collapsed on them in Gigiri has termed it as an accident, and said he is ready compensate the families.
“It was a pure accident, it could not have been avoided because it was a landslide,” the director of Laxmanbhai Construction Limited Kirit Patel said.
He said the workers were excavating the sand when it collapsed on them, killing two of them. Three others were wounded and are admitted to hospital.
“We have followed all the laid down construction regulations at the site because we are professionals, the sand collapsed as they excavated it very far away from the building which we are putting up,” Patel said, adding “it was a pure accident.”
He said the company is in touch with families of the deceased workers and those injured who are in hospital on how they will be compensated.
“We are very sorry for what happened, and we feel the loss of the families. We have already assured them of compensation and any other support they may require,” he said.
The injured victims were first treated at the Avenue Hospital before they were transferred to the MP Shah hospital where one of them is in the ICU.
He said the company will meet all the medical expenses of the injured workers.
The site engineer Mahesh Jani said “we did not flout any single regulation.”
He said they are cooperating with the police who are carrying an investigation on the cause of the accident.
“The police have recorded statements and they have been visiting the site, even Labour Ministry officials were here in the morning and we showed them all the drawings,” he said.
They said the company has been in existence for 60 years, having constructed several well-known buildings in Nairobi, Mombasa and other towns in the country.
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