A nine-storey residential building under construction collapsed at OJ area of Ruiru in Kiambu County on early Sunday morning sending residents of the area into panic.
While no one was injured in the 3am incident, neighbor to the building under construction were left shocked, compelling many in the adjacent building to vacate their houses immediately.
About fifteen vehicles in the neighboring garage were destroyed beyond repair by the rumble that also saw the owner of the building incur huge losses running into millions.
Kiambu County police commander Ali Nuno said that the incident had only one casualty who sustained slight injuries and property of unestablished value destroyed.
According to Eunice Macharia, the CECM in charge of Lands and Physical Planning in Kiambu County, the owner of the building had managed to put up eight floors and had started building the ninth floor.
Macharia said that tenants in the neighboring buildings were instructed to vacate their houses immediately as the county engineers monitor the safety of their buildings.
Speaking in the company of representatives from the engineer’s board of Kenya and the national construction authority alongside police, Macharia urged locals in neighboring buildings to keep off the area until their buildings are confirmed safe for occupation.
Eye witnesses in the incident said they were asleep when they heard a loud bang at around 3.30am and, together with other night guards, they ran for their lives.
The incident happened barely two months after two other buildings collapsed in Gachie and Kinoo in the same county.
Kiambu Governor James Nyoro earlier formed a task force that included officers from the National Construction Authority, Surveyors of Kenya and Board of Engineers in Kenya who were to go on a fact-finding mission on positions of buildings in Kiambu County that are under construction.
Ruiru DCIO Justus Ombati who was at the scene said they will join efforts with the county and other national government agencies to ascertain what caused the collapse.
The owner of the building who is yet to be established was still at large by the time of going to press.