On the second day of 2026, collapse of a multi-storey building in Nairobi’s South C Estate dampened the positive mood that characterised the festive season.
As Kenyans slowly return to work and begin implementing New Year’s resolutions, the disaster once again places all stakeholders in the building and construction space in the spotlight.
Collapse of the 16-storey building, which was still under construction, comes a month into the December 2025 discovery of yet another structure in Parklands, Nairobi with visibly cracked columns.
In 2026, one of the resolutions that all stakeholders in the building and construction industry, spanning real estate investors and steel manufacturers to building contractors, engineers, architects, enforcement agencies and even those in the cement manufacturing arena, must make is to be our brothers’ keepers. So far, there are scant details on fatalities.
However, the magnitude of the collapse is serious enough to warrant a sector and industry-wide review of the current Building and Construction Operating Practices.
We can no longer afford to call a spade a big spoon. These incidents are not acts of nature and must be called out for what they are: professional negligence, leading to preventable tragedies.
Professional negligence in the building and construction sector, unlike in the medical world, is normally a chain of events. A chain comprising several, but interlinked, parties; the contractor, civil/structural engineers, architects, county approving officials as well as inspection and surveillance officers at the National Construction Authority (NCA), among others.
These parties bear a cardinal responsibility and obligation to ensure that buildings under construction adhere to stipulated construction and public safety standards.
Such responsibility behooves them to maintain strict surveillance to ensure that approved designs are translated to physical structures under their supervision.
The professionals, including site clerk of works reporting to the site civil/structural engineer and architect, must also ensure the use of quality materials.
There can be no denying that the proliferation of substandard materials and non-compliance with design requirements are contributing factors to the poor structural integrity of these collapsing buildings.
The only way to ensure use of quality materials is to rely on laboratory-certified materials, from cement and concrete to steel and aggregates.
The NCA must be adequately resourced to enforce the Kenya National Accreditation Service for building materials testing services, as a measure to address the decline in quality of materials being introduced to the market.
This year, all building and construction stakeholders must make a new year’s resolution to ensure proper materials testing, accurate traceability, and professional supervision as part of a mission to be our brother’s keeper in the new year and beyond.
Traceability of all materials and professional supervision for all building construction projects must be strictly enforced as a matter of life and death.
It cannot continue to be a poorly kept secret that substandard steel, paints, cement, electrical wires and even timber and related materials are readily available in this market.