Owner of building that collapsed in Ruaka arrested at JKIA while attempting to flee

Speaking at the scene of another building that collapsed on Monday morning in Ruiru town, Kiambu County Commissioner Joshua Nkanatha said the Ruaka building owner is currently being held at a Kiambu police station waiting to be taken to court.

According to Nkanatha, the owner of the property alongside other stakeholders including county officials and engineers may be charged with causing deaths and damage to other people’s properties.

“There is loss of life and damage of property, people died in Kirigiti and Ruaka so there are so many things that we are looking at,” the commissioner told Citizen Digital.

Kiambu County has been on the spot following the increased cases of collapsing buildings, the latest one sinking on Monday at 4 am hours after over 100 tenants were evacuated.

On Sunday evening, Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi led the evacuation operations after the five-storey building sitting right opposite Ruiru Police Station developed serious cracks.

The building was condemned and marked as unsafe for accommodation leading to an emergency evacuation.

Commissioner Nkanatha says officers from the national government have joined the county government in forming a multi-agency team that will move around the entire county to inspect the state of the buildings to prevent such scenarios from happening again in the future.

However, he pointed fingers at the judiciary for releasing suspects who are arrested in connection to collapsing buildings on anticipatory bonds.

“We respect the independence of our judiciary but we cannot win this fight alone, we are requesting them to help us deal with this impunity, we are all serving the same people,” Nkanatha said.

The building that collapsed in Ruiru town will be flattened today.