At least six people were injured on Wednesday, February 11, after a building under construction collapsed at the junction of Racecourse and Kirinyaga Road in Nairobi’s Central Business District.
The incident occurred in the wee hours of the morning near the busy OTC area in downtown Nairobi, prompting a swift response from emergency teams. According to police, 12 people were rescued from the scene shortly after the collapse.
Confirming the incident, the Kenya Red Cross said response teams had been dispatched immediately after reports emerged. “A building collapse has been reported near OTC along Kirinyaga Road, Nairobi County. Response teams are en route. More updates to follow,” the agency stated in its initial update.
Later, the Red Cross confirmed that all workers who had been at the construction site were accounted for and that those injured had been rushed to hospital for treatment. Authorities have since cordoned off the area as investigations begin to establish the cause of the structural failure.
The latest incident adds to mounting concerns over construction safety standards in the capital. Building collapses have become disturbingly frequent in Nairobi, where rapid urban development, high housing demand, and weak regulatory enforcement continue to expose residents and workers to danger.
This is now the third major building collapse reported in Nairobi this year.
On January 2, a 16-storey building under construction in South C collapsed, killing at least two people and leaving scores trapped under rubble. Rescue operations at the site lasted several days as emergency teams worked to retrieve victims.
Barely a week later, on January 10, another residential building under construction in Karen caved in, resulting in two deaths and seven injuries. Preliminary investigations by the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) and the National Construction Authority (NCA) pointed to structural failure caused by poor workmanship and the use of substandard materials.
Professional bodies, including the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) and the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), have previously warned that between 80 and 85 per cent of buildings in Nairobi could be unsafe for occupation.
As investigations into the Kirinyaga Road collapse continue, pressure is mounting on regulators to enforce building codes more strictly and hold rogue developers accountable amid the rising building collapse crisis in Nairobi.
