Kenneth campaigning in Kahawa West/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 13 – It is not too late for the Nairobi County Government to act on rogue developers, independent gubernatorial candidate Peter Kenneth has said.
Speaking after visiting the site of the building that collapsed on Monday in Embakasi, Kenneth accused incumbent Governor Evans Kidero of failing to crack the whip against rogue developers.
He said it’s not too late, “they can still do something within a few months before elections when we shall send them home.”
“This is replicated in many parts of the country… It is a total disaster, “he complained.
But he says if elected, he has a plan to ensure no more lives are lost as a result of unregulated constructions.
“The County Government has not just failed to control but to also inspect the housing sector,” he said.
But Kidero who had earlier visited the scene blamed it on court orders barring them from demolishing the houses.
He said there are about 1,560 houses that need to be demolished but “they always run to court when we want to act,” he said.
He said the ill-fated building had been earmarked for demolition after the Huruma incident that claimed tens of lives.
According to the National Disaster Management Unit Deputy Director Pius Masai, about five people are still missing in the latest building collapse.
Of those, there is one woman and three children.
Police had a hard time trying to convince the tenants to vacate, a few minutes to the disaster.
One of the women who is still missing allegedly asked for her deposit before she could vacate.
Another said, “you people are not God to know whether it will collapse.”
A seven-storey building adjacent to the one that collapsed has since been evacuated after it was established to be unstable.
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