Kenya Building Collapse Kills 12, Many Feared Trapped

Rescue crews in Nairobi searched for survivors Saturday after flooding caused a six-story residential building to collapse the day before, killing at least 12 people and trapping an unknown number of others inside.

Authorities said more than 130 people had been rescued and taken to hospitals. The Kenyan Red Cross said 150 units in the building and adjacent homes were affected.

Heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in many areas of the city, which made it difficult for rescue teams trying to reach the scene. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the site of the disaster, in a low-income, densely populated neighborhood called Huruma, and he ordered the owners of the building arrested.

Kenyatta had ordered an audit of every building in the country last year after eight buildings collapsed, killing at least 15 people. A report from the Architectural Society of Kenya estimated that half of the structures in Nairobi were not up to code.

Kenya’s growing middle class has caused an increase in demand for housing in the city, but building materials used in Nairobi’s recent construction boom have come into question after the building collapses over the past year.

VOA