At least six people were injured after a building still under construction collapsed early Wednesday morning at the intersection of Racecourse and Kirinyaga roads in Nairobi’s Central Business District.
Police say 12 individuals were successfully pulled from the debris following the incident, which occurred before dawn. The structure that gave way is located near the OTC area in downtown Nairobi.
Confirming the incident, the Kenya Red Cross stated that emergency response teams had been dispatched to the scene, although details on the scale of destruction were not immediately available.
“A building collapse has been reported near OTC along Kirinyaga Road in Nairobi County. Response teams are en route. Further updates will be shared,” the Red Cross said in a brief statement.
Later, the humanitarian agency confirmed that all workers who had been at the site were accounted for, with those injured taken to hospital for treatment.
Authorities have yet to establish what caused the collapse, and investigations are ongoing.
Building failures have become increasingly common in Nairobi, largely driven by rapid urban growth, high housing demand, and developers who flout construction regulations or ignore safety standards.
This latest incident marks the third major building collapse reported in the city this year.
On January 2, a 16-storey building under construction in South C collapsed, killing at least two people and trapping several others under rubble, prompting days-long rescue operations by government agencies and emergency teams.
Just over a week later, on January 10, another unfinished residential building collapsed in Karen, leaving two people dead and seven others injured.
Preliminary investigations by the Nairobi City County Government and the National Construction Authority have previously attributed such incidents to structural weaknesses linked to poor workmanship and the use of inferior construction materials.
Amid the rising number of collapses, professional bodies such as the Institution of Engineers of Kenya and the Architectural Association of Kenya have warned that between 80 and 85 per cent of buildings in Nairobi may be unsafe for occupation.
Following a spate of eight building collapses in 2015 that claimed 15 lives, former President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a nationwide audit of buildings to assess compliance with safety standards.
That audit later revealed that 58 per cent of Nairobi’s buildings were unsuitable for human habitation.