One of the directors behind the construction of the eight-floor building in Malindi, Kilifi County that killed one person injuring about 26 others has surrendered himself to police.
The suspect, Mr Shabbirali Fakhuddin, is said to be the son of Mr Shabir Kasamale who died in the tragedy last Friday, surrendered himself at the directorate of criminal investigation offices for questioning.
Malindi DCI boss Anthony Sunguti said Mr Fakhruddin has recorded a statement with DCI detectives and that he will be taken to court adding that they are following up the names of the engineers he submitted during the interrogation.
“He will also help us ascertain if the building was cleared by relevant government bodies to go on and if they had the correct documents,” said Mr Sunguti.
Police are still pursuing for the contractors and other directors of Palm Developers Limited, a company behind ownership of the tragic building -Palm heights.
On his part, Mr Fakhruddin who went missing after the incident occurred said he received the news of the collapsing building while in Mombasa forcing him to switch off his phone due to the ‘bad news.’
At the same time, the court allowed police to detain Mr Daniel Wesukula Mukhonga who is said to be the site engineer for 21 days pending investigation.
Mr Mukhonga was arrested last Friday after he informed police that he was the site engineer for the tragic building.
The DCIO said they are also following up government officers to inform them if they cleared the building for construction and if the right procedures were being followed.
Journalists have established that the building was to have 2 bedroom apartments and 3 bedroom apartments once it is complete and it had been advertised for sale in 2017 at a cost of Sh6 million each.
“Luxury apartments in the heart of Malindi town, invest today in the tallest building in Malindi with Palm Developers Limited ranging from Sh. 6 million,” stated one of their posts in Facebook account.
Their social media account also names Mr Huzeifa Suleimanji as one of the directors.
On his part, Kilifi County Director of NEMA Samuel Lopokoiyot said they condemned the building in August last year but the developers continued with construction at night.
Mr Lopokoiyot said the developer applied for an environmental Impact Assessment report on March 22, 2013 but it was rejected the authorities und his report had problems/.
Further he said the National Construction Authority also stopped the construction also citing fake value of the property which was said to be 30 million.
The NEMA county director said during that time the developer paid Sh15, 000 as approval of the project that was supposed to be 12 floors.
“We rejected his proposal because his plans were not clear he had photo copied documents,’’ he added.
The NEMA county boss said the developer went ahead to construct the building at night to avowing being detected and by November last year it had reached eight floors.
So far, the death toll remains one person although the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officers are still combating through the debris to recover more bodies.
Police believe that seven people who had been employed to work at the building were present during the tragedy.
The building is located at Barani near Gapco Petrol Station and residential houses which were destroyed by debris after it collapsed.
Already, bulldozers have demolished a house next to the tragic building to enable them excavate the rumbles after efforts to use handmade tools to rescue some of the victims were futile.
The tragedy occurred a day after the resort town experienced heavy down pour for three consecutive days.
One of the residents said the disaster is the worst calamity to hit Malindi and it shall be remembered for years.
“It is sad that first tallest building in the resort town which was under construction has caused death,” he added.