Nairobi Building Collapse: Rescuers Race to Find Survivors

The Nairobi building collapse on Friday afternoon has turned one of the city's busiest trading districts into a rescue zone, and the search for people trapped under the concrete is now in its second day. The structure, an unfinished tower in the Eastleigh neighbourhood, came down at about one in the afternoon local time, according to Al Jazeera, leaving a heap of slabs stacked on top of each other with very little space between them.

What happened in Eastleigh

Eastleigh is a dense mix of shops, homes and street markets, usually crowded with thousands of traders and residents. The building was still under construction when it fell, and police said more than ten of its upper floors were unfinished. Outlets have described the tower as anywhere from sixteen to eighteen storeys, which shows how chaotic the first hours were.

Kenya's Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said sixty-seven workers were on the site. Sixty-six of them escaped unharmed and one was injured. The bigger worry was the lower levels: eleven shops, including an electronics store, a butchery and a grocery, were operating on the ground floor and in the basement, per the same Al Jazeera report.

Joseph Kaula, a plasterer working on the fifth floor, told the Associated Press that he was the last person to walk out. "The whole area was filled with dust," he said. Relatives of people inside said some had phoned for help right after the collapse, but their phones soon went silent.

The rescue is slow and tense

Rescuers began with almost no heavy machinery, and the Nairobi building collapse site was jammed between other high-rise buildings, which limited access even further. Pictures from the scene showed responders using poles stripped from trees to probe the pile, while excavators arrived later. Police also fired tear gas at people who had started looting neighbouring shops, which made it harder to get emergency crews through.

At one point on Friday evening, excavators stopped completely. According to Kenyans.co.ke, people trapped under the rubble reportedly warned that the digging was cutting their oxygen supply, so teams paused to work out a safer approach. Work resumed after a short break for consultations.

By Saturday afternoon, the Kenya Red Cross said its teams had pulled a trapped man alive from the rubble and taken him to Kenyatta National Hospital, according to The Star. The organisation also said sixty-six of the sixty-seven site workers had been accounted for, while the search for anyone inside or near the building continued. A tracing desk at the site helps families look for missing relatives.

Why people want answers

The question echoing across Nairobi is how a building like this was allowed to stand, let alone host businesses. Governor Johnson Sakaja said the project had approval for construction but no certificate of occupation, so opening shops on the ground floor was illegal. "This has potentially cost lives," he told reporters at the scene.

Police launched a manhunt for the owner, who had not presented himself to officers, and warned that anyone found criminally negligent would face the law. Sakaja also raised concern about developers who get approval and then replace qualified professionals, suggesting there may have been no qualified person supervising the site.

The National Construction Authority said the project was registered on July thirtieth, twenty twenty-five, and it was not immediately clear whether the building had ever been inspected. For a Nairobi building collapse like this one, that gap between paperwork and reality is where the anger sits.

A pattern Kenya keeps facing

Zooming out, the tragedy lands at a moment when many young Kenyans already distrust how city rules are enforced. Housing is tight, land is expensive, and developers are racing to build upward in crowded districts, so shortcuts can be tempting and oversight can be thin.

Safety audits suggest this is not a one-off. Kenya's National Building Inspectorate found that eighty-seven percent of buildings audited nationwide last year failed to meet standards or lacked approvals, according to AFP as relayed by Al Jazeera. Sakaja argued that county governments need stronger enforcement powers and called lenient penalties a "slap on the wrist."

Lawmaker Babu Owino has called for an independent investigation into the building approval system over concerns about corruption, negligence and weak enforcement. Meanwhile, Kenyan officials have reportedly ordered public health officers to flag dangerous buildings, a sign that pressure for reform is building quickly.

What to watch next

The next hours matter most in this Nairobi building collapse, and every update from the site could change the picture. Nairobi's police chief warned of a possible second collapse because the damaged tower was leaning on its neighbour, so rescuers must balance speed with safety. Seven people were reported missing late on Friday, and officials have not yet given a final casualty count.

For younger Kenyans who live, work and shop in dense neighbourhoods like Eastleigh, the story is personal. It is about whether the buildings around them are inspected, whether approvals mean anything, and who is held responsible when they fail. Keep up with world coverage and politics updates as the investigation and the rescue continue, because the Nairobi building collapse is already shaping a national debate about accountability.