The family of Yusuf Ali, who went into the ill-fated Mombasa building that was brought down by KDF personnel on Wednesday, have said they have found closure.
This is after it was officially confirmed that Ali went into the building about four minutes before part of the structure started collapsing on April 2.
He is presumed dead. No other casualties have been reported.
“We have closure now. We are relieved that we know he is under the rubble. The county is now working to retrieve the body. We appreciate the authorities for all they have done,” Ali’s relative who declined to be named, told the Star.
They also found that Ali spoke to two guards at the building before one of them went to show him the units he intended to purchase.
The nine-storey residential building was expected to welcome its first tenants in August.
The family denied claims he was abducted.
A section of residents of Marikiti and human rights
activist on Sunday had protested his missing.
However, on Monday, Ali’s relative refuted the claims, after getting access to CCTV footage showing him walking towards the building.
“He was in the process of acquiring units in the new building because he wanted to live there. He had even shown us, his friends and other people the unit he wanted to live in,” the relative told the Star.
Police sniffer dogs were Tuesday brought in to ascertain the existence of any bodies under the rubble.
On Wednesday, Mombasa governor Abdulswamad Nassir held talks with the family at his office hours after the Sh350 million building was controllably brought down.
“It is with deep sorrow that the County Government of Mombasa announces the passing of Yusuf Ali Abdi, who was tragically confirmed as deceased following the collapse of the building’s first floor three days ago,” Nassir said in a condolence message.
Nassir described Ali’s death as a painful loss not only to the family and those who knew him personally but also to the entire Mombasa community.
“The county government remains committed to ensuring that all necessary support is extended to the affected families and that all efforts are directed towards a thorough investigation and accountability in this tragic incident,” Nassir said.
He added that the Lands department would be working day and night - for 36 hours after the collapse - to clear the area where the body is believed to be.
The building had been given all the necessary approvals by the county.
The developer, said to have been hospitalised after the reality of the impending loss dawned on him days before it was demolished, had first sought approval for six storeys in 2023.
In February 2024, he sought and was given another approval to add three more storeys.
However, Nassir said, the structure exhibited severe foundational compromise due to the unapproved borehole drilling into the foundation, with ground floor columns collapsing by approximately three metres.
Before its controlled demolition on Wednesday, close to 60,000 residents and traders within a 1.2km radius of the building were evacuated in a coordinated exercise led by the county government.
The evacuation also affected the nearby Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, whose 124 patients, with eight in the Intensive Care Unit, had to be relocated to other hospitals including Utange and Port Reitz hospitals.
The CGTRH patients will be allowed back on Friday.
The county transport department will restore the area once all rubble has been cleared.
Nassir vowed that heads would roll once investigations
into the building’s collapse are complete and has suspended county government building inspectors who signed off on any of the stages of its construction.
The suspensions will remain in force until verification is done to ascertain what each signed off for, compared to what is actually on the ground.
He has set up an independent task force comprised of officers from the DCI, National Construction Authority, Kenya Institute of Planners, Engineers Board of Kenya, National Building Inspectorate, Architects Association of Kenya, Registered Architects and Quantity Surveyors Board, among others.
The taskforce, chaired by the National Building Inspectorate’s Lawrence Gitau, will within two weeks give him a report indicating who is liable for punishment.
He also suspended any other works by the contractor and engineers involved in the ill-fated building's construction.
This is until further investigations into those other works are done.
