Fraudulent contractors in Kenya who flout rules, guidelines and regulations governing the construction industry in the country have been cautioned of dire consequences.
The Secretary in the building inspectorate at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Moses Nyakiongera says the government has rolled out a nationwide inspection of all the buildings as ordered by president Uhuru Kenyatta .
“A technical team is going around the country to inspect all buildings under construction. Although this might take time I can assure you that we will catch up with those risking other people’s lives through failure to abide by construction regulations”, said Nyakiongera.
Nyakiongera consequently called on contractors to be prudent and avoid wasting resources on shoddy work since buildings built without adherence to the law will be demolished since they pose danger to users.
“Last year a total of 17 houses collapsed, this year we have not had any such incident apart from a wall that collapsed in Nakuru and we do not want to hear of another collapsing”, insisted Nyakiongera.
Nyakiongera was speaking to the press at the site of a six storey building which has developed serious cracks on the ground floor and the walls forcing officials from the National Construction Authority( NCA) to order occupants to evacuate the house yesterday.
The Secretary said that they have launched an investigations into how the building was built and they will release a final report and there is a possibility of the owner being asked to bring it down.
He added that they are soon going to release an emergency number to the members of the public where they can report any risky construction.
“We cannot be everywhere, security starts with you and me and therefore we want the members of the public to assist us by sharing information”, he explained.
