Failure to enforce Nairobi County by-laws blamed for buildings collapse

Paramedics try to reach people trapped in the rubble of a residential building that collapsed in Makongeni, Nairobi, on December 17, 2014. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE   NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• County Executive for Planning and Housing Tom Odongo told the Nation on Thursday in an interview that there are adequate laws to govern housing and property development but acknowledged that there have been challenges in enforcing them.
• A former chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya says the county government needs to outsource inspection and enforcement services from a pool of experts who will be paid by developers and not by the county.

By MAZERA NDURYA
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Failure to enforce by-laws on construction is to blame for collapse of buildings in Nairobi, a former chairman of an engineers organisation has said.

Engineer Kariuki Muchemi, a former chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya (ACEK), said what the county government needs are structures to implement existing laws and not committees.

He said committees to investigate why buildings cave in killing and maiming people will not help unless the county government develops and implements recommendations of past probes and existing regulations.

The Nairobi County government, however, says rogue developers have made the task of enforcing the regulations difficult by hiring goons to violently block any inspection of buildings to ascertain their habitability.

(Read: Owner of collapsed building arrested)

County Executive for Planning and Housing Tom Odongo told the Nation on Thursday in an interview that there are adequate laws to govern housing and property development but acknowledged that there have been challenges in enforcing them.

“What is ailing enforcement of these laws is security. There was this assumption that those who use these facilities will be civil and enable us carry out the work of inspecting these buildings but this has not been the case.

“Our teams have been met with violent reactions from youths mobilised by developers and plot owners making enforcement very difficult,” said Mr Odongo.

SAME REASONS

Eng Muchemi, who chaired a team appointed by former minister Simeon Nyachae to investigate a building accident along Ronald Ngala Street in Nairobi in 2006, said the reasons for the building collapse have been the same -- touching on poor workmanship and substandard building materials.

Mr Nyachae, who was then minister for roads and public works, constituted the Ronald Ngala Building Technical Investigation Committee, following the collapse of a building under construction, killing 17 workers who were working on the site.

According to the report, the committee identified the root causes of the collapse of the building as weak columns, insufficient steel reinforcement and poor concrete.

“We recommended to the then City Council to enforce the existing building by-laws which govern the submission of structural drawings and also Kenya Bureau of Standards to take action against manufacturers who are producing substandard building materials.

“It was also agreed that the City Council should not issue occupation certificates unless a declaration is made by the structural engineer that they have designed and supervised the building among other recommendations,” said Eng Muchemi quoting the 32 page report.

The engineer said the county government needs to outsource inspection and enforcement services from a pool of experts who will be paid by developers and not by the county.

(Read: Death traps in the name of homes)

For the last two days, officials from the county's fire department have raided buildings in Babadogo and Ruaraka where tenants have been ordered to vacate buildings earmarked for demolition.

COMPREHENSIVE AUDIT

The county government has been conducting a survey to identify structurally unsafe buildings in the city. This follows the death of seven people in Makongeni after a building collapsed on them at night.

Mr Odongo said the county government would carry out comprehensive audit of buildings and develop a database for those that are certified as unsafe.

He said the issue was not to change laws overnight but to come up with structures that would help the county address insecurity and ensure safety of Nairobi.

But Mr Odongo said the registration of contractors by the National Construction Authority is making their work of tracking down rogue contractors and builders lighter because no contractor can be allowed to practice without being formally registered.

“We have also been discussing with the county security to structure our operations instead of the ad hoc operations that have been the practice. This will ensure that the security of the people conducting inspection is assured,” said Mr Odongo.

He said what the county government was doing -- cracking down on buildings -- may be commendable but added it was short term and would not address the real problem in Nairobi.

In 2011, in a paid advert signed by then Town Clerk Philip Kisia, arising from collapse of two buildings, the council decided to carry out a building audit in the city as an initiative to bring developers and the council together.

“The idea is for the developments to be assessed by experts on issues of compliance in terms of hospitability and safety.

“In this exercise the council will remain a coordinator while professionals undertake the exercise independently,” said Mr Kisia in the statement on the City’s position on construction of buildings.

Early this week, the Nairobi County government said that all building materials would now be subjected to fresh testing to ascertain their suitability before any construction works begin.

The new directive is aimed at checking the many incidents where buildings have collapsed, killing and injuring tenants and passers-by.

Deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke said in a statement that the testing would be done by county government approved laboratories