Nairobi’s construction sector is approaching a danger point, according to professional bodies in the building and engineering industry, which say that about 85% of buildings in the city are unsafe for occupation due to weak oversight and poor compliance with construction standards.
- •According to the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK), The Architects Alliance (TAA), and the Kenya Institute of Planners (KIP), systemic failures in how buildings are approved, supervised and constructed led to the recent collapse of a multi-storey building in South C.
- •The professionals’ bodies describe the incident as the result of breakdowns across the regulatory chain rather than an isolated structural fault.
- •According to the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), many buildings in Nairobi will eventually collapse if a mild earthquake occurred today.
“We are living by the grace of God. If a tremor even at very low register scale was to happen in Kenya today, a lot of buildings would come down,” said AAK President George Ndege.
The architects and engineers are also concerned over the practice of developers doubling as contractors, saying it undermines the separation of roles needed for independent supervision. The industry bodies also cited the use of substandard building materials as a recurring factor in building failures, pointing to weak enforcement at construction sites and in supply chains.
“The developer was the contractor and, therefore, maybe felt he didn't need the services of consultants during the construction stage. That is wrong,” said Sylvia Kassanga, President of The Architects Alliance (TAA).
The professional bodies added that when developers control both financing and construction, consultants are often excluded during execution thus weakening quality assurance and peer review. This risk is heightened when additional floors are added to buildings, a process that requires calculations beginning at the foundation level.
While designs may receive approval, there is often no independent professional verification during construction to confirm that approved plans are followed or that structural changes are properly assessed.
“We are recommending that as one of the processes to be a need inbuilt process for quality control and quality assurance all through from design approvals and all that. Can we tell that it was done this way but someone checked and confirmed that what has been done is correct,” said the president of the IEK, Shammah Kiteme.
County governments have come under scrutiny for enforcement capacity. Professional bodies say many counties lack sufficient qualified engineers and architects to carry out effective inspections, allowing deviations from approved plans to go undetected.
The South C collapse has renewed calls for tighter enforcement, clearer accountability and the incorporation of peer review into building approvals. Industry bodies say that without structural reforms, Nairobi’s construction risks will continue to grow alongside the city itself.
