This archive report was first published on 10 June 2020.
On Tuesday night at 7:30 pm, a three-storey residential building in Kericho County collapsed, trapping a six-year-old boy inside. The building, which housed six families, had started showing cracks on Sunday before slowly sinking and eventually collapsing.
After a six-hour search and rescue mission led by County Police Commander Silas Gichunge and Kenya Red Cross Society coordinator Sifia Tuwei, the boy's body was retrieved in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
According to Gichunge, the boy had succumbed to his injuries by the time rescuers managed to reach him. Tuwei added that the deceased's mother, brother, and a housemaid were accounted for, but the family's whereabouts were unknown until the rescue.
The building's caretaker was not found, and police suspect that he fled the scene upon the collapse of the building. An investigation into the cause of the collapse is ongoing.
One tenant in the building accused the landlord of negligence, stating that huge cracks began developing on the building a few days ago but the landlord only inspected it on Monday. The knocking around of construction workers brought in to reinforce the building ended up making the cracks worse until it collapsed last night.
