Family, friends cling on to hope of finding loved ones

Friends and families of people missing after a building collapsed in Nairobi’s Huruma Estate on Friday night have continued to flock Huruma Social Hall to demand information about the whereabouts of their kin.

By Monday afternoon, day four of the rescue, the number of the missing people was 65, the same figure given by the authorities on Sunday evening, sparking fears they may still be trapped in the rubble and might not be found alive.

The death toll from the tragedy was 21 by Monday noon, with the number of those who had been rescued said to be 135.

The last person to be rescued alive was pulled out of the debris on Saturday night, and the cries of a mother and child heard on Sunday have long gone silent, casting shadow of doubt on whether or not they will be found alive.

The Kenya Red Cross has set up a help desk Huruma Social Hall, where there was desperation, pain, confusion and diminishing hopes among people who were expecting to find their loved ones alive.

The worried family and friends were desperately awaiting for any news of their kin.

Tempers flared at the camp as frustrated youth from Huruma almost came to fisticuffs with Red Cross officials, claiming information was being kept from them.

Mr Stephen Biko, whose mother and sister are yet to be found since the seven-storey flat collapsed in a heap on Friday night, said he has looked everywhere for them with no success.

“I was hoping to get information from the Red Cross about where my family might be but I have not been successful,” he said.

The lack of information is as a result of excruciatingly slow progress from the rescue efforts at the site, where the military were lifting and moving the debris bit by bit as they searched for any survivors and bodies of the victims.

PLEASE BARE WITH US

National Disaster Management Unit (NDMU) pleaded with families to be patient.

“We have not yet ruled out the possibility that there could be people who are still alive and that is why we have to be careful and at the same time try to be fast,” the Incident Commander-in-charge Pius Maasai said.

Mr Maasai said the building had been divided into three sections that would be removed in sequence since it was not possible to work on all of it at once.

The first section of the building, which is accessible from the footpath is still being worked on, and the rescuers hope the bulldozer, which they have managed to get to the site will help things move a bit faster.

Although the rains, which had slowed the operations, eased off Monday, Mr Maasai said the mission was still being done slowly because Mathare river was making it difficult for bulldozers, rescue vehicles and the military to access it.

In addition, Huruma is one of the most congested neighbourhoods in the city, which means other high story flats, just like the one that collapsed, have encroached on the roads making the remaining access space too narrow for heavy military grade equipment to be transported to the site.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero told the Nation some houses in Huruma were unsafe and promised to take action against county officials in-charge of planning and quality assurance of houses.