Revealed: South C building was flagged three times before collapse, owner ignored warnings

The 16-storey building which collapsed on Friday in South C, Nairobi, had been flagged at least three times by the Nairobi City County enforcement teams after the developer extended its construction beyond the approved floors.

This as the National Construction Authority (NCA) also revealed that the project was non-compliant at the time of collapse. The developer, Abyan Consulting Limited's licence had expired.

Despite the warnings and arrests, the owner of the building is said to have carried on construction with impunity until early morning, Friday, when it collapsed with at least four people buried in the debris.

In a statement issued after the collapse of the building, the Nairobi County Government Urban Planning Department revealed that the construction was flagged in May, July and December 2025, but the contractors went on unperturbed with impunity.

In the documents seen by Citizen TV, the county directed the contractor to: stop further development forthwith, resubmit plans for re-evaluation of the project and was given 14 days to comply.

The building collapsed Friday morning when the construction was reportedly on the 16th floor according to the NCA. The Nairobi County statement put it at 15th floor and the Public Service Cabinet Secretary at the 14th floor, at the time of collapse.

According to police records, three persons working at the site, Farah Hassan Jacub, Abdiaziz Hassan Jakub and Wycliffe Omondi Onyango were arrested in July 2025, but were released on a Ksh.20,000 cash bail a few days later.

The NCA confirmed that the project was non-compliant, announcing that the investigation to get to the bottom of the collapse was underway.

NCA also revealed that the developer, Abyan Consulting Limited’s annual practicing license awarded on the 1st of August 2023 expired on the 31st of July 2024.

However, this is just one of the many incidents that stemmed from construction impunity.

A similar situation befell residents of Huruma Estate in Nairobi in 2016, when a collapsed building left more than 37 people dead.

Another building in Kiambu County also caved in on September 26, 2022, leaving a trail of death and distraction. And two years ago, a building also came tumbling down in Juja Road Estate, Eastleigh, leaving four fatalities. All these were avoidable incidents.