Huge Crowds Surround Collapsed Nairobi Tower as Seven Remain Missing

Hundreds of people packed the streets around a pile of flattened concrete floors in Nairobi’s Eastleigh district after a high-rise under construction collapsed on 9th Street on Friday afternoon, October 23.

X user Benard Ngeno filmed the crowd gathered below the wreckage, writing, “Building which was under construction fell down in eastleigh section 9.” The video shows the building’s floors stacked on top of each other with scaffolding hanging from the edges, as people in high-visibility vests and onlookers climb onto the rubble and others hold up their phones.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said 67 construction workers were at the site when the building came down. All were accounted for, with 66 escaping unhurt and one injured worker in stable condition in hospital.

Murkomen said 11 shops on the ground floor and in the basement were occupied at the time and seven people had been reported missing. “The rescue team has made contact with some of them, and efforts are underway to rescue those trapped in the rubble,” he said.

Soldiers, police, the Kenya Red Cross, the National Youth Service and county teams joined the search, which entered its second day on Saturday. Rescuers paused heavy machinery after people trapped under the debris warned that it was affecting their air supply. National and county authorities have opened a joint investigation into the cause of the collapse.