Fears of the imminent tragedy of immeasurable magnitude awaiting to happen best describe the lurking danger hanging in the air within the precincts of a five-storey city skyscraper built on a sewer line all attributed to rogue government officials and an unscrupulous private developer, investigations by The Informerhave revealed.
A towering commercial building at the intersection of the busy Luthuli Avenue and Munyu Road within the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) which is now fully occupied to the top floor has a free flowing sewer line underneath.
It formerly housed the Nairobi Mart chain of outlets.
Our three months long investigations have unearthed an intricate web of cartel-like operatives running the department of Housing, Planning and Urban Development at Nairobi County.
Others are officials drawn from the Ministry of Transport, Housing Infrastructure and Public Works, Building Inspectorate, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) alongside their accomplices from the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) allegedly minting millions to shield shady developers while exposing tens of lives and their property to grave danger.
At the basement floor of the building which is a potential scene of crime awaiting to happen, well concealed gazing manhole covers with openings large enough for a person to pass through can be mistaken for emergency underground escape access vault where raw sewer runs through.
According to tenants who operate business premises within the building, raw sewer spills over the manhole covers during the rainy season due to constant blockages of the sewer line beneath.
Fears are rife the waste water flowing beneath may gradually weaken the building and may eventually collapse or get submerged.
The owner of the building, identified as Patrick Karanu, a city private developer-cum- electrical dealer at the Nairobi downtown area of the Nyamakima is said to have mastered the notoriety of bribing government officials to construct buildings without proper structural approvals or manipulating the approved plans in the cause of the construction.
He is also the proprietor of Jonka Electrical Supplies Limited located along Charles Rubia Road.
“Yes it is true the building sits on a sewer line. We always have problems during the rainy season due to raw sewage that spills over the manhole covers save for the bad odor emanating from beneath. Karanu owns this building and another in Nyamakima popularly known as KK Restaurant that was partially demolished but later constructed again controversially without the requisite approvals. He has pocketed all the officials.” Our source intimated.
When contacted, Karanu declined to comment on the matter but instead requested for office directions but he never showed up.
“Please send me the office directions I will come.” Karanu said.
In the past, the county government has repossessed public land grabbed by private developers mostly belonging to public schools, hospitals and fire stations.
Both Nairobi Governor Anne Kananu and Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director General Major General Mohamed Badi did not respond to our calls for comment.
This exposé comes against the backdrop of a planned structural audit of private commercial and residential buildings in the city in which at least 600 condemned structures are set for demolition by the NMS boss.
The audit comes in the wake of rising cases of building collapse in the country due to lack of structural integrity rendering most of them unsafe.
In the past, a report by a taskforce and a team of investigators formed to undertake forensic investigations into at least 200 buildings whose construction approvals were deemed questionable revealed a total of 400 buildings out of the audited 3, 914 buildings in Huruma alone have failed structural test and thus should be demolished.
In August 2016, three people were killed after a wall collapsed and trapped them underneath while digging trenches along Brookside Drive in Nairobi’s Westlands.
This has put officials from the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), Building Inspectorate under the State Department of Public Works, The Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya (ACEK), Planners Association of Kenya and Nema on the spot over alleged collusion with unscrupulous developers.
Recently, the government ordered the National Building Inspectorate (NBI) to demolish thousands of buildings that were declared unsafe for occupation in various parts of the country.
This follows a 2018 audit by the NBI, covering 14,895 buildings, which classified 723 structures as dangerous, 10,791 unsafe, and 1,217 fair – with 2,194 buildings declared safe.
Over 600 buildings, mainly in Eastlands, were found to be at a high risk of collapse.
The audit identified Huruma as the estate with the most dangerous buildings – totalling 388.
Other areas with dangerous houses include Thika Road (85), Pipeline (65), Babadogo (38), Umoja (18), Dagoretti (16), Nairobi West (9), and South B (5).
Common defects identified in buildings within these areas include structural weakness, uneven staircases and poor ventilation due to improper erection of the structures.
Shoddy workmanship and lack of professional supervision have been identified as the main causes of building collapses in Kenya, with two thirds of buildings collapsing after completion and a third during construction.
Eighty-seven cases of building collapses have occurred in the country over the past five years – claiming the lives of about 200 people and injuring more than 1,000 individuals.
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