Several injured after building collapses along Moi Avenue, Nairobi CBD

A building that once housed Club Avenida collapsed during a nighttime demolition exercise along Moi Avenue in Nairobi’s Central Business District, injuring four people and raising concerns about safety at demolition sites. 

The incident occurred at around midnight on Saturday, October 17, next to MKU Union Towers, opposite the Mageso Chambers building, where the Magereza DT Sacco headquarters are located. 

Early reports indicated that workers were demolishing the structure to make way for a new building when supporting metal beams on the less stable side, near a weakened pavement, were cut, triggering the collapse.

According to witnesses at the scene, about 25 people were inside the building at the time. 

Soon after the collapse, police officers and emergency responders arrived at the scene and began rescue operations, amid reports that people had been trapped beneath the debris. 

By around 1am, witnesses said all 25 people had been accounted for, although responders were still searching for a man believed to be trapped. 

An official from the National Disaster Management Unit (NDMU) reportedly said all four injured victims had been taken to hospital, with three in stable condition and one in critical condition.

Authorities had yet to establish the full extent of the collapse or confirm whether anyone else remained trapped beneath the rubble as the operation continued.

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The incident renewed safety concerns and sparked outrage online, with members of the public calling on Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja and the County Government to ensure accountability. 

However, neither had issued a statement on the incident by the time of publication.

After visiting the site, Geoffrey Mosiria, County Chief Officer for Citizen Engagement and Customer Service, urged investigators to establish whether qualified professionals had supervised the exercise. 

“I call upon our county engineers to conduct a thorough investigation into this specific demolition to establish the cause of the collapse, determine whether qualified experts were involved to guide the demolition, and verify whether all the necessary demolition approvals had been obtained,” he wrote in a statement. 

The county official also appealed to developers to comply with existing regulations and consult county engineers during construction and demolition work to protect workers and members of the public. 

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