Condemned four-storey building collapses in Zimmerman, Nairobi

A four-storey building in Zimmerman, Nairobi, whose construction was questioned two years ago has collapsed.

The residential house near Deliverance Church came down at around 2am on Wednesday.

No one was injured, but it could have been worse had it come down during the day.

At daytime, women selling vegetables and other foods often displayed their goods in stalls just in front of the faulty house.

On Wednesday morning, the stalls were flattened as debris from the building came down.

The building had been marked in 2014 as unsuitable for habitation after construction safety officials from the Nairobi County government and the National Construction Authority found it had no pillars and its floors were weak.

At the time though, there were occupants living as high up as the third floor while it also housed a fast-food kiosk, a butcher, a small grocery store and a general kiosk.

All the occupants promptly moved out of the house, but the building remained standing till Wednesday morning.

However, window and door frames and panes that initially decorated the building in a light blue colour were later mysteriously removed.

As in most parts of Nairobi, safety officials occasionally look around here to inspect houses under construction or already occupied.

In the case of this house and several others in the area, officials in 2014 marked it with a red X, indicating it was unsafe for habitation.

Occupants were told to move out.

These Xs, however, slowly disappeared and several other houses are still occupied.