Collapsing Buildings – Who is to Blame? – Martin Tairo

Collapsing Buildings – Who is to Blame? – Martin Tairo

1985
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A building that collapsed in Lang'ata
A building that collapsed in Lang’ata

The collapse of a building in Mlolongo where six Kenyans died was completely overshadowed by the deaths of internal security minister George Saitoti, his assistant Orwa Ojode and four others in a chopper crash a day later. The media coverage this incident received, it is like it never happened.

So touching was a story of a couple from the city who ran a business in the collapsed building. On that fateful evening, Moses and Diana Ochieng were checking out their restaurant business oblivious of the tragedy that was to occur.They clung to each other when the building was collapsing and died huddled together.

Earlier on, a building had collapsed in the Westlands Suburb of Nairobi. A developer who was allowed to construct five floors of an apartment block decided to add three more.

Later on, John Mwangi wrote on Daily Nation’s Cutting Edge column complaining about another building coming up in Mlolongo which has ‘very thin columns and looks shaky’. This is definitely a disaster waiting to happen.

Who will stop this deliberate slaughter of innocent Kenyans by greedy developers out to make a kill? Who is responsible for ensuring that all buildings coming up are not a health and safety hazard?

The buck stops with local authorities. They approve plans for development, carry out inspections on sites and issue occupation certificates to developers.

The process of putting up a building is straightforward. As a developer, you approach an architect and engineer to prepare designs for you. With these, you head to your local authority to seek approvals for construction. It’s at this point where they examine what you are putting up against planning guidelines to ensure compliance.

After approvals, construction commences. Local authority inspectors will be making periodic inspections to ensure that construction is as per the approved plans.

After construction, the developer invites local authority officers to inspect the building to ensure that it is fit for occupation; an occupation certificate is issued thereafter. On paper, no building can be occupied without an occupation certificate.

The architectural Association of Kenya has put the volume of illegal developments at 60% of the total construction works ongoing in Nairobi. Simply put, 60% of the construction going on has either not been approved by the relevant authorities or is not constructed as per the approved drawings.

These authorities claim that they lack the capacity to monitor and inspect ongoing construction works due to lack of adequate manpower.

This excuse alludes that there could be some developments coming up without the knowledge of authorities. That’s a big lie. No matter which hole your plot lies within the city, the moment you show the intention of putting up a structure, some officers will immediately land on your door step asking for ‘approved plans’.

In many instances, they are well aware that a developer has not sought approvals and their intention is to harass and intimidate them into getting bribed. These officers would return every week to collect their bribes until construction works are complete. The faster you construct, the lesser the total bribe you fork out.

With officers who can traverse all corners of the city collecting bribes, the council evidently has the manpower that can enforce planning guidelines, only if their efforts were aimed in the right direction. Clearly, the problem is corruption, not lack of capacity.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Spot on Martin Tairo Maseghe….. it true that the council officer only show up at the construction sites to collect bribes.

    • sadly, shallow article.

      and yes, ccn has no capacity to inspect all construction.why?

      2 people can easily collect bribes in say 50 sites a day, but those 2 people would have to work like horses to thoroughly inspect even 5 high-rise sites in a day.

      it takes much less effort to pick a bribe than to inspect a site so the author can't just say those picking bribes are enough to inspect buildings…that's poor math.

      so again, sadly, shallow article.

    • Mao Deh, you are part of the rot that we are experiencing as Kenyans, why? Because you choose to attack an article that has educated me instead of attacking the real problem, because you give excuses for a council that we know has the manpower to harrass but not to enforce and finally because you did not offer solutions/ suggestions of how we can avoid/ stop this carnage. We can not continue to accept unnecessary loss of life due to unscrupulous contractors, greedy owners and greedy individuals in institutions that are meant to protect the welfare of Kenyans. Big up Tairo let those with conscience open their ears and listen.

  2. Martin, this is true. whether you have approved plans or not one must bribe them. I’ve seen one victim who had the approved plans. I didn’t know why he bribed

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