A family has been thrown into mourning after a four-storey building under construction collapsed on Wednesday, May 1.
The building collapsed in the Karia area, Kirinyaga County following heavy rainfalls experienced in the country.
According to first responders at the site of the accident, a middle-aged woman was pulled out of the rubbles and was confirmed dead.
The deceased body was taken to the Kerugoya Hospital mortuary awaiting postmortem.
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They however managed to rescue her two children who were in another room at the time of the accident.
Security team led by Kirinyaga Central police commander John Torori arrived at the scene immediately, and are waiting for the owner of the building and the contractor.
“I would like to assure you that we are going to investigate this incident as we wait for the owner of the building and if we find he violated the stipulated rules of construction action will be taken,” Torori stated.
By the time of this publication, the cause of the building collapse had not been fully established.
This comes even as the government continues to set up measures to ensure the safety of Kenyans during this enhanced rainfall period.
On Tuesday, April 30, President William Ruto's Cabinet ordered the immediate eviction and evacuation of those living on riparian land.
The President said the Cabinet adopted a decision on Tuesday morning to have all people living in riparian reserves in Nairobi and around the country served with a 48-hour notice to move to forestall disaster.
“We are taking preemptive steps to ensure safety rather than be sorry later when a similar incident [like the Maai Mahiu one] happens. We want all people living in riparian reserves and in vulnerable spaces to move to safer grounds and we will be issuing the notice tomorrow [Wednesday],” Ruto said while addressing the displaced families in Mai Mahiu.
He also ordered immediate deployment of National Youth Service and military officers to reinforce search and rescue efforts.
