The owner of a building that collapsed in Ruaka last week was apprehended at 2 a.m. today while attempting to flee the country.
Police investigators based at the region’s main international gateway pounced on Jennifer Kamau, 59, just minutes before she boarded a flight bound for Texas, in the United States.
However, following the arrest, the crime busters took the woman ill and rushed her to a city hospital, where she was treated before being arraigned in court. Two people were killed in Ruaka on Thursday last week when a six-story building belonging to the woman collapsed on an adjacent building while tenants were sleeping at around 3 a.m.
Her arrest comes around a time where there has been a spike in collapsing buildings in Nairobi and Kiambu counties that were improperly constructed.
On the 7th of November 2022 a building under construction collapsed at Kwandege, Tassia killing one man, a welder who had rushed to pick his tools in the building before the building collapsed, crushing him to his untimely death.
Just a week later on November 15th, at Seasons area in Kasarani Nairobi, a 7-storey building that was under construction collapsed killing two people and injuring six others. the administrative officer said there were plans to begin inspection of several buildings under construction by a multi-agency team from the county government to ensure safety of tenants.
Jennifer Kamau’s Ruaka building collapsed on early November 17th just 2 days after the Kasarani disaster.
Another building in Kiambu county collapsed at 4 a.m. today, just hours after over 100 households were evacuated. Kiambu governor Kimani Wamatangi was on site during the evacuation exercise as tenants raised alarm when the building developed cracks early Sunday morning.
Concerns have been raised over the spike of collapsing buildings with citizens questioning authorities over the construction exercises ongoing with some living in fear as to whether the next building to collapse will be theirs.
