End of recovery efforts at collapsed building
Rescue and recovery operations at the collapsed building in Kiambu town has been called off.
According to the Kenya Red Cross, which has been helping in the rescue of survivors and recovering bodies from the debris of the building since the Monday incident, the operation ended at 1 am on Thursday morning.
16 deaths have so far been recorded and as of Wednesday, 11 bodies had been positively identified by relatives, according to Red Cross. 16 more were rescued alive from the building and four people who sustained injuries are still admitted in hospitals; three of them at Kiambu District Hospital and one at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Nairobi.
However, the Kenya Red Cross Society is still trying to trace nine people who are reported missing, whose names were submitted by relatives after the collapse of the building.
The three-day operation involved a joint team of rescue workers comprising the Kenya Army, Kenya Police, Administration Police, Kenya Red Cross, G4S, National Youth Service, Knight Support, local authorities and the Provincial Administration
But on Wednesday evening, hopes of getting anybody alive from the remaining rubble of the building faded, with the recovery team saying they were now concentrating on bringing the building down completely.
The last body was recovered from the debris at 5.20 pm Wednesday evening.
