Twenty Still Missing as Nairobi Building Collapse Search Enters Fifth Day
Rescuers in Nairobi's Eastleigh district say they have detected two people alive under the rubble of a building that fell Oct. 23, while families wait for news of 20 relatives still unaccounted for.
See where this is ›NAIROBI, Kenya —
Twenty people were still unaccounted for Tuesday, Oct. 27, after a multi-storey building under construction collapsed on 9th Street in the Eastleigh district of Nairobi, Kenya, last Friday, Oct. 23, according to The Star and Citizen Digital. No deaths had been reported in the coverage Watchman News reviewed.
See where this is ›George Ndolo, head of the Kenya Red Cross for the Lower Eastern region, told Citizen Digital: “At our desk, 52 people had been reported missing, but 32 have been reunited with their families.” The Star reported that police and the Red Cross are working with a mobile phone company to trace signals from the missing, though some phones are inactive or may have been dropped when people fled.
Rescuers using listening, thermal-camera and radar life-detection equipment brought from China detected two people believed to be alive beneath the rubble, Citizen Digital reported. Incident commander Dr. Duncan Ochieng said, “We are doing our level best and we will be able to achieve our objective,” but added that crews had not yet been able to reach them. Kamukunji MP Yusuf Haji said he was worried because the first 72 hours had passed.
Simon Osumba, Nairobi North Regional County Commissioner, said some of the missing are believed to have been working on the underground floor when the building came down, The Star reported. Eleven casual workers have been especially hard to trace because they gave only one name and no phone number.
Two people pulled out alive on the day of the collapse were taken to Kenyatta National Hospital, The Standard reported. Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said the project did not comply with construction guidelines and that the county had sent information to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Police spokesman Muchiri Nyaga said anyone found culpable “will face the full force of the law.” The National Construction Authority has published the names of the developer, contractor and professionals on record for the building, which it said was registered as a proposed development on July 30, 2025.
The Kenya Red Cross is running a tracing desk for families looking for relatives, and police say their investigation into the collapse is continuing.
