Three bodies were retrieved from the debris of a collapsed building in Kenya’s Capital on Thursday morning, two weeks after the deadly collapse, bringing the confirmed death toll to five as police said recovery operations were nearing completion.
Sixteen people are still believed to be missing since the building collapsed on October 23.
Four people were rescued alive from the 18-storey building, which collapsed along a busy commercial street in Nairobi, while its upper floors were still under construction. The ground and basement floors had been rented out to businesses, including an electronics shop, a grocery store, a textile shop and a butchery. Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja said the building had not been approved for construction and that the renting out of the completed floors was also illegal.
He blamed weak enforcement of construction regulations and minimal penalties for developers’ blatant disregard for building laws in the capital.