NAIROBI — At least eleven people remained unaccounted for on Saturday after a multi-storey building under construction collapsed in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood, flattening a structure whose basement and ground floor were already rented out to shops.
The building came down on Friday afternoon at around 1 p.m. local time along 9th Street, in the busy Eastleigh commercial district, trapping shoppers, traders and construction workers beneath concrete and steel. Rescue crews worked through the night with excavators and sniffer dogs as officials warned the fallen structure was leaning against a neighbouring building.
Rescue teams race against the clock
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said on Saturday that around 67 construction workers were on the site when it collapsed. Sixty-six escaped, he said, and one was injured.
The eleven people still missing were believed to have been inside shops operating on the ground floor and in the basement — an electronics shop, a butchery and a grocery store among them. The Kenya Red Cross said two injured people had been pulled from the rubble and taken to Kenyatta National Hospital, and Murkomen said rescuers had made contact with some of the survivors still trapped inside.
Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja, who visited the scene on Friday, said teams had heard people communicating from within the debris. He cautioned that the number of dead could rise, estimating early on that “one or two” people may have died — an assessment given while digging had barely started. No authority had issued a confirmed death toll as rescue operations continued.
A pancake collapse, captured on video
Witnesses described a terrifying few seconds as the building’s floors gave way in quick succession — what Nairobi News described as a complete pancake-type collapse, with floors falling onto one another. Amateur footage circulating online showed pedestrians scrambling for safety as a thick cloud of dust spread across the street.
Nairobi police chief Issa Mohamud said more than ten upper floors were under construction when the building came down, and warned that the fallen structure was leaning against its neighbour, which could also collapse. Police are looking for the building’s owner.
The governor’s office confirmed that the ground floor was occupied, and Sakaja added that while the building had construction approval, it lacked an occupation certificate — a detail that has intensified scrutiny of how businesses came to be operating beneath an active construction site.
Regulator names the developers and contractors
On Friday, Kenya’s National Construction Authority (NCA) identified the firms and professionals listed in its records for the project. The authority said the project was registered on July 30, 2025, as a proposed development in Eastleigh’s Kamukunji sub-county.
According to the NCA, 9th Street Plaza Limited was listed as the developer and Stromax Holdings E.A Limited as the contractor. The records also named architect Emmanuel Mwangi Maina and structural engineer Joseph Muturi Mugu, along with their professional registration numbers and the project registration number.
The authority’s statement did not say whether it had inspected the building before the collapse, or whether any safety concerns or violations had been recorded. The listed details reflect the NCA’s project records, and the cause of the collapse has not been established.
Murkomen said it was too early to judge the building’s integrity or the cause of the disaster, and that those found responsible would face action only after thorough investigations. A multi-agency team including the National Police Service, the NCA, the Engineers Board of Kenya and Nairobi City County has been tasked with the investigation.
Crowds hampered the first response
The collapse drew hundreds of residents, traders and onlookers, and police said the crowds blocked roads and made it difficult for emergency vehicles to reach the scene. Officers fired tear gas to disperse onlookers, and witnesses reported stone-throwing incidents and interference with ambulances before the site was secured.
Search teams from the Kenya Defence Forces, the General Service Unit, regular police, the Kenya Red Cross and Nairobi City County emergency crews are working the site. Relatives of the missing have given their names at a tent set up near the rubble, and families who spoke to the Associated Press described calling their relatives’ phones in the first minutes after the collapse before the lines went silent.
The disaster has renewed long-running concerns about building safety, construction standards and the enforcement of regulations in Nairobi’s rapidly developing neighbourhoods, where demand for commercial and residential space has fuelled a boom in high-rise construction.
Rescue officials said the operation would continue around the clock until everyone unaccounted for is found.
Sources
- Reuters, via Deccan Herald — “Building collapses in Kenyan capital, rescuers on the scene” (Oct 23, 2026)
- Associated Press, via Nile1 — reporting from the scene (Oct 24, 2026)
- Eastleigh Voice — “Interior CS Murkomen says 11 people missing after Eastleigh building collapse” (Oct 23, 2026)
- Uzalendo News — “CS Murkomen Vows Action as 11 Remain Missing After Eastleigh Building Collapse” (Oct 23, 2026)
- Nairobi News — “Woman rescued after multi-storey building collapses in Eastleigh” (Oct 23, 2026)
- Tuko.co.ke — “NCA Names Contractor, Engineer and Architect Behind Collapsed Eastleigh Building” (Oct 23, 2026)