The safety of buildings in Nairobi
Cases of buildings collapsing in Nairobi have become so rampant let’s not forget to mention other parts of the country. Just to mention the most recent case, a school building collapsed yesterday in Ng`ando Dagoretti South claiming 7 lives and leaving 64 other pupils injured.
As fresh details emerge, the wire mesh used during the construction was a chicken wire mesh instead of the required steel. This could not definitely hold the weight of 70 children in the building.
Apart from the wire mesh used being an issue, the foundation of the building was dug to 2 inches long. This begs the questions on who was the contractor on site? and who authorized the construction of the building?
This clearly confirms that the top 3 causes of collapsing buildings are weak foundations, substandard materials used during costruction and poor structural design. Other causes includes corrupt inspectors who sluck at their job and greedy investors who try to cut cost on important construction process.
In a inspection conducted by National Building Inspection whose mandate is to audit buildings for conformity with land registration, planning, zoning, building standards and structural soundness ,audited 4879 buildings. Out of all these, 826 were found to be unsafe and structurally unsound.
From this, the question that everyone should be asking themselves is, how safe is the building that we are living in. If this can be done to innocent children, then we should be more worried about what the society is turning into and how greedy we are becoming.
These were pupils who would have had bright futures had somebody just done their work with all the due diligence. Parents are mourning the death of their children which should not be the case. After all is said and done and the dust settles, what becomes the next course of action? do the perpetrator of this injustice get away with what they have done?
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