Jalango Chased Away from South C Collapsed Building Site As Area Mca Abbas Khalif Blames County Officials for Tragedy

Langata Member of Parliament (MP) Felix Odiwuor Jalango was chased away from the site of a collapsed buiding in South C as area Member of County Assembly Abass Khalif and called on the Nairobi City County officials to take responsibility for the tragedy. Jalango who was drunk after being intoxicated with alcohol scampered for safety after the angry area residents chased him away from the scene. “The collapse of the 16-storey building in South C, Nairobi, is a devastating tragedy that has resulted in loss of life and property. My heart goes out to the victims and their families during this difficult time.” “I have ordered a thorough investigation to determine the exact cause, but preliminary findings point to negligence and oversight failures by the Nairobi City County's Urban Planning Department,” he said. He said the personnel at the planning, enforcement, development control, architects, surveyors and inspection must be held to account over the incident. “We know it is not the first time such an incident happens. The county officials and owners must be held to account for the tragedy,” he said. He added they had raised the issue of approval and enforcement on the construction of structures in the city but this landed on deaf ears. “This should be the final incident and must be a lesson. 16 floors are many to collapse and it is an indicator something was wrong all along,” said Khalif. He said they plan to review all approved plans in the area to prevent such future incidents. This came as emergency service providers camped the scene hours after the incident in efforts to rescue any person who may be trapped in the rubbles. Police said they suspect at least one person was killed in the incident that happened at dawn on January 2, 2025. The guards on duty were missing and efforts to trace them were ongoing. The building was under construction at the time of the incident but there were no workers on site then. Police who responded to the scene said they had not located the guards who were on duty and efforts to account for them were being made. Langata police boss Pius Mwanthi said multi agency teams had been deployed to the scene to start digging through to find out if there are casualties there. He said one man who they believe was a pedestrian was injured and rushed to the hospital. The building collapsed next to others which are also under construction. It damaged the one adjacent to it. A guard in the area told police he heard a bang and saw dust only to realise the house was flat. They rushed to the scene and rescued one injured man to the hospital. Police and Nairobi City County officials said the owner and the contractor of the structure were being sought for grilling. Authorities wanted to establish if the construction followed the laid down rules.