No need to worry: Tenants of 6-storey Ruiru building that developed cracks told

Fear and panic gripped tenants of a 6-storey building in the Gatong’ora area along the Eastern Bypass in Ruiru, Kiambu County after the block developed cracks on Monday evening

Some concerned tenants at the Deep East Apartments, which houses over 100 tenants, started fleeing the area after noticing the cracks in walls, beams and on slabs.

James Mwangi, a tenant told Citizen Digital that he panicked and started moving his belongings out of the building when he noticed suspicious cracks and realized that doors could not close and some couldn’t open.

“I moved into this building in December last year, but I noticed that the walls started cracking a month ago and the doors would not close and now I have just decided to move out,” he said.

The area chief Joseph Ntwiga said they called the police and Kiambu County government engineers who rushed to the site as a huge crowd milled around the area.

However, after inspecting the building, county engineers declared it was safe and that there was no need for evacuations at the moment.

John Kamau, the Ruiru sub-county engineer said the cracks are minor and do not affect structural elements like columns and beams.

He however said that tests have to be done to establish the safety of the building which has a capacity of housing 300 people.