At least seven people have been confirmed dead after a six-storey building collapsed in Huruma Estate, Nairobi, Kenya on Friday night after heavy rains pounded the capital.Over 130 people have so far been rescued in the ongoing operations.
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Video from CNN affiliate KTN showed two men carrying children, one holding up a baby dressed in pink as the crowd cheered and emergency workers guided them to an ambulance. Kenya Red Cross says they have sent a search-and-rescue team to the Huruma area.
There were 150 units in the building, according to the Kenya Red Cross. A search team has rescued at least 121 people, local police told Kenya’s KTN network.
On its Twitter feed, the Kenya Red Cross said one adult and three children had been taken to the city’s Kenyatta National Hospital.
“Every time we move some rubble and we hear voices”, she said, “it gives the multiagencies that are here the morale to keep on fighting so that we can get as many people – as many survivors as possible”.
Lower floors of the building crumpled, leaving some of the top story still standing.
The buildings were constructed too close to a river, he said. The structure had been built in less than five months and the 126 single rooms were quickly occupied at a rent of 35 United States dollars a month, Mr Kiruma said. Kiruma said the collapsed building was built in less than five months and contained 126 single rooms which were quickly occupied at a rent equivalent to $35 a month. He blamed the county government of failing to follow through with demolitions of buildings that were identified as unfit for human habitation.
It is feared some builders in Nairobi are bypassing regulations amid high demand for housing.
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President Kenyatta past year ordered an audit of all the buildings in the country to see if they are up to code after eight buildings collapsed, killing at least 15 people. A survey carried out a year ago found that more than half the buildings in the capital were unfit for habitation.
