NAIROBI, August 27 – One person was killed and six others seriously wounded when a building under construction caved in at Nairobi’s Parklands estate on Wednesday morning.
The deceased and those wounded were all construction workers who were putting up a wall of the building’s basement.
A witness who only identified himself as Omolo said they were arranging blocks at the site when a wall caved in shortly before 8am.
“We just heard our colleagues shouting from the other end and when I turned to check, I realised the wall was already down. We immediately started saving those who were under the rubbles,” he said.
Six people were found trapped under the rubble and were all rushed to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
Police and witnesses said five of them were in a critical condition.
“Only one of them was able to talk. All the others were in a comma. The seventh victim was already dead because he had been crushed,” a police officer who was at the scene said.
Another construction worker said there were more than 20 workers at the site at the time the incident occurred.
Many of them were casual labourers who had arrived at the site at 7 am.
Gigiri divisional deputy police chief Karisa Mwaringa led a team of detectives who helped rescue the injured workers.
He said investigations had been launched to establish the cause of the accident.
“We are interrogating the workers and managers here to establish what exactly happened. There is little we can say at the moment,” he said.
