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A building under construction in the Majengo area in Mombasa County has collapsed.
According to the Kenya Red Cross, two people have been rescued, while one person is feared trapped in the rubble.
“A multi-agency response team, including the Kenya Police, County Government of Mombasa and the Kenya Red Cross, is currently conducting search and rescue operations,” the Kenya Red Cross said on X.
Construction workers who were working on the building are also helping with rescue operations. The Mombasa County Lands and Housing Department is yet to comment on the incident, which took place more than a year after a four-storey building near the Mackinnon Market in Mombasa County collapsed on May 27, 2023, just one day after it was declared unsafe for occupation.
The incident comes a few weeks after a multi-storey building collapsed in Kahawa West, Nairobi. The eight-storey structure in Kahawa West had been condemned for demolition.
Nairobi Deputy Governor James Muchiri later issued a statement clarifying that experts had issued warnings to residents in the weeks leading up to the crumble.
The National Construction Authority said in a statement that the owner of the building had been given 14 days to provide a structural integrity report last week.
"The building had been condemned by the Multi-Sectoral Agency Consultative Committee on Wednesday, and an enforcement order was issued for immediate evacuation," NCA Director Maurice Akech said.
As the rescue and recovery mission continued, residents blamed the county government for allowing the developer to risk people's lives by reinforcing the cracks of the building.
A witness said the cracks were visible and that instead of asking people to vacate, the developer started doing renovations from the ground floor.
He said that the contractor and at least 10 workers were trying to fix the cracks. One person was rescued from the building and taken to the hospital by locals before the rescue team arrived.