Kiambu Building Full Of Tenants Nearly Sinks, 40 Families Escape [PHOTOS]
The cracks had affected the walls, windowpanes, slabs, and floors.
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![Kiambu Building Full Of Tenants Nearly Sinks, 40 Families Escape [PHOTOS]](https://viraltea.co.ke/uploads/images/2023/04/image_750x_642fec33a48ae.jpg)
Over 200 residents of a building located in Thindigua, Kiambu County were ordered to evacuate after the building began to sink.
Kiambu governor, Kimani Wamatangi ordered the evacuation of the tenants inhabiting the residential block, with the county's Department of Lands, Housing and Physical Planning rushing to the scene to assist in the evacuation efforts after the building developed multiple cracks, nearly sinking.
The cracks had affected the walls, windowpanes, slabs, and floors.
A photo collage of cracked Jennid Apartments from where tenants were on Thursday, April 6, 2023, evacuated. /VIRALTEAKE
"Following a preliminary investigation that linked the cracks to a foundation failure, the county structural engineers declared the building as unsafe for occupation," Governor Wamatangi noted.
Kiambu County lands minister Salome Muthoni while at the scene stated that she received a call about the sinking building in the morning hours, which led to an immediate response from a multi-sectoral team, including the National Construction Authority (NCA).
The team, upon arrival at the scene, established that the building had shown signs of sinking about one and a half weeks ago.
The team also held discussions with the developer and the engineer involved in the project, who were cooperative enough to provide a statement, before Muthoni established that the building had approvals from the Kiambu County side and that its occupants had been living there for the last 10 years.
"My department has been leading an audit of all residential and commercial buildings across the county for the past two months, both complete and those under construction.
"This is aimed at examining structural integrity following continuous collapsing of building, in what has been attributed to poor workmanship as a result of failure by county government to enforce compliance and corruption," she explained.
The building has about 40 units and approximately 40 families with 200 people were occupying them at the time of the incident.
The county government, alongside the developer and other security teams present, unanimously decided that all the tenants should vacate the building immediately.
"For the safety of the tenants, we've reached a decision in conjunction with the developer and the other security teams that are here, that all the tenants should vacate the houses today to prevent any incidences," she added.
The evacuated residents have been advised to seek temporary accommodation as the county government works to resolve the issue.
The National Construction Authority (NCA) blamed over 80 per cent of collapsed building incidents on poor workmanship, proposing the introduction of new approval policies in the country to prevent future incidents.
"Professional misconduct, using unqualified labour, greed for wealth by developers, poor structural design, and weak foundations are also to blame," NCA stated.
This came in the wake of two building collapses in Ruiru and Ruaka in Kiambu County in November 2022, with the Ruaka case seeing the loss of two lives.
