Two dead after building collapse in Kenya
Sunday, January 10, 2010
- 24 January 2012: Wikinews Shorts: January 24, 2012
- 13 January 2012: Observing the 2012 Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US, and wider world
- 19 October 2011: Kenya troops enter Somalia after kidnappings
- 27 April 2011: U.S. President Barack Obama releases original birth certificate
- 15 November 2010: Somali piracy: Kenyan navy kills three, Chinese ship hijacked, British couple freed
Two people in Kenya died earlier today after a five-storeyed building under construction in the town of Kiambu collapsed. Four others were said to have been injured.
The incident occurred in the middle of the night, at 02:30 local time (23:30 UTC), on Sunday morning. The building was only a few metres from another building that collapsed in October of last year, killing thirty people.
The building is reported to have been condemned last year, when the authorities deemed it substandard. Preparations to demolish the building started yesterday, in accordance with a court order that required the building to be destroyed within thirty days.
One of the casualties from the accident was Maina Irungu, aged seventeen; the other hasn't been identified. People wounded by the collapse were taken to the Kiambu District Hospital. The victims were all people who lived in houses near the collapsed building. Rescue operations are still ongoing, being conducted by the Red Cross, police, and military. Officials also ordered evacuation of two buildings in the vicinity when cracks were spotted on them, according to Capital FM Kenya.
This story in itself is reflective of a major infrastructure problem in Kenya, according to the BBC, China says it will give a US$7 million (£4.4m, €4.9m) grant to help fund infrastructure development projects in Kenya.
[edit] Sources
- "Two dead as another Kiambu building collapses" — Daily Nation, January 10, 2010
- "Building collapses in Kiambu, two people dead" — Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, January 10, 2010
- "Another disaster in Kiambu" — Capital FM Kenya, January 10, 2010
- "China pledges funds for Kenya infrastructure" — BBC, January 7, 2010
