Kenya's Senate opens inquiry into Nairobi building collapses as 300 files go to prosecutors
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A Senate committee will examine breaches of approved building plans and regulatory failure behind a string of Nairobi collapses, after the county forwarded more than 300 files to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Kenya's Senate has launched an investigation into recurring building collapses in Nairobi, with lawmakers targeting projects suspected of violating safety standards and more than 300 files already forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for possible enforcement action.
Hamida Kibwana, chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing, announced the inquiry on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, 4 November, saying continuing building failures were exposing residents, traders and the public to danger. The committee will investigate breaches of approved building plans, poor construction standards, weaknesses in regulatory enforcement and possible professional negligence.
The inquiry follows a series of collapses in the capital this year, including the 23 October incident on 9th Street in Eastleigh, where a multi-storey building under construction came down while businesses operated on its ground and basement floors. Rescue teams recovered five bodies, four people were rescued alive and 16 were reported missing in the latest update. The committee will also examine the 2 January collapse of Manzil Towers in South C, which had been approved for 12 storeys but was being built with four additional floors, the partial collapse of a 22-storey building on School Lane in Westlands, and a collapse in Blue Estate, Shauri Moyo, during a demolition linked to the Nairobi River Regeneration Project.
Kibwana said Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja told the committee on 13 October that the county had forwarded more than 300 files on suspected violating developments to the ODPP. The committee plans to ask the prosecution office how many of those files produced charges or other enforcement measures, and to seek explanations for delays. The ODPP said on 26 October that it had directed the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to probe the Eastleigh collapse, including the conduct of county officials, the developer, contractors and professionals, but that it had not received an inquiry file specifically on that building.
Kibwana cited the National Building Inspectorate's 2025 audit of 396 developments, which found that 87 per cent either failed to meet building standards or lacked the necessary approvals. The audit led to the emergency demolition of two buildings with serious structural defects and documented six major collapses in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisii during 2025, including two in Parklands. The findings were set out in the Architectural Association of Kenya's Status of the Built Environment Report 2025, which also showed the number of buildings audited fell from 20,649 in 2024 to 396 in 2025.
A separate government assessment covering 1 July 2025 to 2 April 2026 found that 12,018 of 21,282 buildings inspected nationwide were non-compliant. In Nairobi, 3,908 developments were assessed and 2,261 were found compliant - figures that point to a widening enforcement gap as demand for housing and commercial buildings keeps growing.