Building Inspectorate launched, to re-inspect buildings

By Caroline Njenga

The demand for housing in the country is on the rise, with the supply gap still unfilled.

As a result, more real estate developers and contractors are bypassing construction rules and regulations in order to meet the demand.

In Nairobi alone, only 42 percent of the city buildings are considered safe for occupants.

This is according to a 2015 audit by the National Construction Authority which concluded that buildings are collapsing due to poor quality of concrete, lack of proper foundation and use of substandard building stones.

Lack of skills is one of the scariest nightmare be delving the construction industry.

Only 16 per cent of those undertaking construction have gone through training.

Early this year NCA earmarked 204 unsafe buildings in Nairobi and its environs to be demolished and so far only four buildings deemed unfit to live in Huruma area have been brought down.

He blames lack of coordination among regulatory bodies that oversee different segments of the construction sector as the reason for delay.

In this regard, the ministry of housing has come up with a special unit dubbed Building Inspectorate mandated to re inspect and demolish buildings that are considered to be unsafe for human inhabitants.

Despite the upheavals, being one of the fastest growing sectors in Kenya, the construction industry contributed to received 8.2  percent of Foreign Direct Investments last year alone.