This archive report was first published on 2 October 2019.
On October 2, 2019, the collapse of a classroom at Precious Talents School in Nairobi brought to the fore the Kenyan culture of tolerating mediocre construction.
The death of eight pupils in the incident highlighted the need for a safety culture that prioritizes the well-being of citizens.
According to a national audit by the Government early in 2019, more than 12,185 houses were found to be unsuitable for use, with only a few structures meeting the standards.
Real estate is often owned by 'powerful people', including those in leadership positions, who are untouchable.
Paul Maringa, the former Public Works, Housing and Infrastructure Principal Secretary, admitted that many of these houses are not fit for use.
Architects have pointed out that demolishing inhabitable houses in Nairobi alone would leave the city looking like war-torn Aleppo in Syria.
Mediated blame games are a diversionary tactic to deflect attention from those who should have taken responsibility and resigned but didn't.
It is time to draw a line in the sand and say no more mediocrity in the construction industry.
Blockchain, a distributed ledger system, could be an effective tool in fighting corruption and ensuring the safety of buildings.
According to an article by Don Tapscott and Ricardo Viana Vargas in the Harvard Business Review on July 26, 2019, success in using Blockchain depends on mobilising resources across enterprise boundaries, auditing and protecting identities, contracts, and payments, and tracking the provenance and ownership of assets.
Some ideas around this new approach include a reputation ledger that tracks subcontractors' deliverables, smart contracts that identify accountabilities and trigger milestone-based payments, and blockchain-enabled applications that aggregate data into a shared project management dashboard.
Blockchain could help identify ownership, contractors, architects, planners, inspectors, and even city leadership that no one escapes in the event tragedy strikes and blame game ensues.
The ledger could be made public, allowing anyone, including tax authorities and civil society, to know the true owners of the assets.
