MPs question rising cases of collapsed buildings; ask counties to hire experts

The Engineers Board of Kenya now wants county governments to hire accredited engineers for the construction of buildings.

This is after members of Parliament raised concerns over the number of buildings collapsing in the country.

National Assembly Education committee chair Florence Mutua poked holes in the criteria used to credit engineers.

“The number of collapsing buildings in the country is increasing and we ask ourselves, who are these people? Who credits these engineers?” Mutua paused.

EBK Representative in universities Silvestre Abuodha faulted counties for failing to hire professionals to oversee the construction of buildings.

Abuodha said the extent of damage is however not uniform across the counties.

"We had a meeting with the council of governors and told them that every work section should have a registered engineer," he said.

Abuodha spoke during a meeting with the national assembly education committee on Thursday.

“We are trying to come up with policies that will ensure every county has a registered engineer, registered architect supervising and contractor,” Abuodha said.

He added that a task force has been selected to go around the 47 counties to determine the cause of the increased collapse of buildings.

“We want to have a policy direction. What is clear is, there are a number of weaknesses in our counties in terms of personnel. For instance, you find a county does not have any registered engineer,” he added.

Recently, it emerged that the owner of the collapsed multi-story building in the Muthiga area of Kinoo, Kiambu County, contravened the approved architectural plan and built two more floors. 

In a statement on Sunday, Land, Housing, Physical Planning and Urban Development County Executive Eunice Macharia said the county government of Kiambu issued the approvals five years ago.

The building, which was under construction, developed weak points and leaned on another in the Kinoo area, Kiambu county.