Over 200 families ordered to vacate after building starts to sink in Thindigua

Over 200 families occupying 40 units of rental houses of four-storey buildings in Thindigua, Kiambu County, have been ordered to vacate to avert danger after one of the units started sinking.

The rental houses, which were built and completed in 2014, have never had any issues until the heavy downpour which occurred last week, where pillars holding the houses started to cave in.

Brighton Wekesa, an employee of Brand Movers, said they have been evacuating tenants from the building for two days now, adding that inside the houses there are visible cracks hence the reason for their clients to move out.

Kiambu County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for lands, housing, physical planning, municipal administration and urban development Salome Muthoni said they received a call about a building that was sinking and involved a multi-sectoral team to go and assess the situation.

Ms. Muthoni said they discovered that the building had started showing signs of sinking about one and a half weeks ago, and later had a session with the developer who was cooperative and the engineer involved in building the houses.

In conjunction with the developer and the security team, she said they all reached a decision to vacate the tenants with immediate effect so as to guarantee their safety.

Concerning the rising cases of buildings collapsing within the county, the CECM noted that a multi-sectoral team was formed to check on all buildings starting with upcoming developments to ensure they have proper documentation and that developers are compliant with all requirements.

She added that they will also be inspecting buildings that have been in existence for some time with an intention of guaranteeing safety to people residing in the houses.

While encouraging developers not to take shortcuts during the approval process, the CECM further noted that the physical planning department was working to ensure approvals do not take too long.