Four rescued from collapsed Eastleigh building in Nairobi; China's XCMG supplies excavator and crane

Four people have been rescued and taken to hospital after a multi-storey building under construction collapsed on 9th Street in Eastleigh, Nairobi, on 23 October, The Star reported on 25 October. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said on the evening of the collapse that seven people had been reported missing and that rescuers had made contact with some of them, while a multi-agency team searched the rubble. Government officials put the number still missing at five, Xinhua reported on 25 October.

William Sifuna Watitwa, the police staff officer for personnel in the Nairobi North sub-region, said Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), a Chinese company, had provided an excavator and a 25-tonne crane. The excavator "played an instrumental role" in rescuing two people trapped beneath the debris on 24 October, he said. He said the crane lets rescuers work from above, lifting heavy debris to improve access to possible survivors.

Fredrick Nyasani, an administrator at XCMG's Kenya office, said the company mobilised the machinery immediately after learning of the collapse, and that the excavator and crane work together to clear rubble and hoist concrete slabs.

On the evening of 23 October, Murkomen said all 67 construction workers at the site had been accounted for: 66 escaped uninjured and one was injured and in stable condition in hospital. Eleven shops on the ground floor and in the basement were occupied at the time of the collapse.

The National Police Service has asked the public to stay away from the area, particularly Yusuf Haji Avenue and 9th Street. Families seeking information can go to the Kenya Red Cross desk at the site or call the emergency number 1199. Police said investigations into the cause of the collapse are continuing.