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Toddler rescued from Huruma rubble re-united with father

Speaking to the press at the Starehe CDF Hall following their re-union, Ralson Wasike described it as a miracle that Dealeryn Wasike who has since been discharged from hospital, survived the tragedy/MIKE KARIUKI

Speaking to the press at the Starehe CDF Hall following their re-union, Ralson Wasike described it as a miracle that Dealeryn Wasike who has since been discharged from hospital, survived the tragedy/MIKE KARIUKI

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 3 – The six month-old girl who was rescued alive Tuesday morning from the collapsed building in Huruma four days after the incident, has been re-united with her father.

Speaking to the press at the Starehe CDF Hall following their re-union, Ralson Wasike described it as a miracle that Dealeryn Wasike who has since been discharged from hospital, survived the tragedy.

He pointed out that he has so far not received any information about his wife who is still among those missing.

“My child is very strong and that is how I have brought her up. I normally play with her and exercise with her. She loves to roll and every time she does that, we normally place her in a basin where she was found,” he recounted.

“My wife sometimes asks me why I play lot with my daughter as she loves rolling and that is the reason why she is normally put in a basin, but I thank God that it is what saved her life from the collapse of the building,” he stated.

Wasike explained that he was working extra hours on his shift when the incident occurred and it was only after 11pm that he heard of it.

“They told me to work a little longer since there was a lot of work. This necessitated that I remain at work until 11pm and it is at that time that I got a call from a friend of mine who told me that he had heard that there was a house which had collapsed and that is the time I started taking some steps to find out what was going on,” he explained.

According to Nairobi Police Boss Japheth Koome, Dealeryn was found emaciated on the first floor of the building at around 4am and rushed to the Kenyatta National Hospital.

In the meantime, rescue efforts are ongoing at a faster pace after a second bulldozer was brought on site to help clear the debris as the number of those missing remain at 95.

According to the Incident Commandant Pius Masai, the exercise was being conducted professionally and called for patience as attempts were made to save more lives.

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He stated that the rescue teams were working on bringing down the structures surrounding the site so as to be more accessible and called for patience and cooperation from all concerned.

“The rescue operation is continuing and if you look down there, the building is too large for us and as you are aware, we do not have enough space but we are working on creating enough space so as to accomplish this work effectively,” he stated.

Masai further indicated that so far, the death toll from the tragedy stands at 23 dead with 136 rescued.

“We cannot really give the percentage of the work and we cannot really give a time frame of the operations because of the limitations of the space and the delicate operations but we are sure that we may get more alive from the debris. We will only leave this place when we have dealt with our objective,” he stated.

Police have in the meantime applied for 21 days to detain five suspects arrested over the collapsed building, as police determine what charges to prefer against them.

READ : Police want Huruma building suspects held for 21 days

State Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu told the court that investigations ought to be completed in order to decide whether to prefer murder or manslaughter charges.

He urged the court to remand the suspects at an unknown police station for their safety due to anger from members of the public.

But the suspects through their advocates opposed the application arguing that bail is a constitutional right and have no intention of absconding court proceedings.

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