Hopes of getting survivors dwindle

Hopes of getting anybody alive from the remaining rubble of the building that collapsed at Kiambu Town on Monday set with the sun on Wednesday night, with the recovery team saying they were now concentrating on bringing the building down completely.

The number of the dead stood at 16, 11 had been treated and discharged while the number of those missing stood at nine, based on the number of relatives who had reported to tents set up at the the site.

The last body was retrieved at 5.20 pm Wednesday evening.

Four people remained admitted at the Kiambu District Hospital and another admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital.

Kiambu Red Cross chairman Henry Simiyu said the demolition of the entire area was expected to be complete by the end of the day on Thursday, bringing to an end the three-day ordeal.

Members of the team at the site said the lack of information on the contractor and the failure of the owner to turn up, two days after the incident, had kept them in the dark regarding how many people could still be in what remained of the building.

The site’s developer, identified as Kimani Kanai or ‘Kiwaka’ could not be reached on any of the contacts listed in the building’s plans made available by the Municipal Council of Kiambu.

Central PC Japhter Rugut, speaking after a brief from the team on the site, said the efforts would go on until the building has been brought down completely and all bodies recovered.

He said the Criminal Investigations Department had been asked to help apprehend the man and the contractors.

“These people have switched off their phones and we believe they have gone underground. If the worst comes to the worst, we will have to impose actions on his activities,” said Mr Rugut.

Sources however, told the Nation that anticipatory bail had been put up in case the developer, who also owns several buildings in Kiambu, Limuru and Nairobi and is said to live at Ridgeways is arrested.

By the time this story was being filed, the earthmovers had eaten away two-thirds of the building that collapsed towards the back.

Slim chances

Given that the teams had entered the basement towards the front of the building after a hoax call on Tuesday, chances of rescuing anybody else appeared slim.

Families who had arrived at the site from Monday evening waited as the bodies were pulled out of the rubble, with some heading to the Kiambu District Mortuary to identify their dead.

A few metres from the site, relatives sat in tents, barely listening to the counsellors who urged them to ‘accept and be patient’ and keep their hopes alive. It was a hope that had been dashed for Rose Onyango.

Rose’s husband, Gordon Onyango, had been a storekeeper at the site, travelling to Kiambu daily from Kibera, where the couple has lived most of their lives with their six children.

Mr Onyango was 48 and had been talking home Sh3,500 every Saturday.

His brother, Samuel Onyango, arrived at the scene Wednesday morning and later went to the Kiambu District Hospital Mortuary to identify his brother.

The family of Amos Mutua, 18, also identified his remains at the mortuary.

Patrick Mbuto, an uncle, said Mutua had worked at the building since April after being invited there by yet another uncle who worked as a driver.

He was described as quiet and reserved, sharing a house at Pangani with his elder brother. When news of the building’s collapse reached their mother in Machakos, she called relatives in Nairobi to begin the search.

The Nation also ran into Esther Mundia who had since Tuesday morning been looking for her brother, Charles Kamau, 23. The construction worker was married and had a one-year-old boy. He lived at Ndumberi, about two kilometres from Kiambu town.
He was finally located at the mortuary at about noon on Wednesday.

His ageing father told the Nation he had asked him to come home for the Kenyatta Day celebrations.

“When I saw he had not come by the end of Monday and heard about the building’s collapse in the news, I asked his siblings to look for him here,” said Mr Mundia.

Kamau’s cousin, Wilfred Njagiru, also died in the incident.

The fine dust and a faint stench of rotting bodies had forced those at the centre of the action to wear masks as the grim task entered the second day.

Visit by politicians

Politicians, among them Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and MPs from constituencies in the larger Kiambu also trooped there later in the day, bringing with them some Sh170,000 to assist the families of those that lost their lives in the incident.

Public Health minister Beth Mugo also toured the site.

MPs were on the warpath at the site Wednesday evening, saying those responsible need to be brought to book first.

Kabete MP Lewis Nguyai, also the Local Government assistant minister said local authorities lacked the capacity to enforce the building code and the existing bylaws.

MPs Njoroge Baiya, John Mututho and Njuguna Mwaura asked the government to have the councils put their houses in order to avoid worse situations.

“If the government is unable to supervise, it should stop these developments,” said Mr Baiya.

Mr Mututho said those responsible should already be in jail for ‘abetting mass murder.’

Victor Kimani was brought to the counsellors’ tent in the morning on Wednesday. The 23-year-old man told counsellors he had been discharged from Kiambu Hospital on Tuesday and after praying at St James Catholic Church in town, headed to the site.

“Ee ku? Ee muoyo? (Where is he? Is he alive?)” he asked as he staggered into the tent. He was referring to David Wachira, a friend of his who was at work on the fourth floor, one level above where he was working with eight more people.

Susan Wanja, 25, was among those camped at the site, hoping that whenever work stopped, a sign that a body had been sighted, it would be her husband, Dickson Kariuki.

She said they have had two children in the seven years she has been married to him Kariuki left their home at Karunga near Ndumberi at 7 am and walked to the site he had been working as a mason for the past month.

After the news broke, she was informed by a friend over the phone that a building had collapsed. The friend’s brother was also in the building. Calls to her husband went direct to voicemail and she headed to the hospital, hopeful that he would be brought in injured. She had faith in the massive effort launched at the site but it has since become a one long wait for her.