Eight people have been injured after Nyamira County Assembly building under construction partially collapsed on Thursday evening.
The injured were among other 51 workers on site who were busy doing their last bits for the day when suddenly the frontage section of the three storied building under construction suddenly came tumbling down.
The unfortunate incident which happened at around 1700hrs forced officers both from the National and County Governments, including members of the public to assist manually remove debris of the collapsed building to ascertain that there was no worker trapped under the collapsed building.
“Members of the public have been very helpful in assisting the medical personnel take those who were injured and all those who were working at the site to Nyamira Referral Hospital which is just adjacent to the collapsed building to be treated. We are grateful for their goodwill and efforts to save lives,” said Nyamira Governor, Amos Nyaribo.
Nyamira County Commissioner, Amos Mariba, confirmed that luckily there were no deaths reported after all the debris at the collapsed building were removed.
“All the 51 workers who were at the site were received for emergency care at the Nyamira Referral Hospital and 43 had no injuries, five had minor physical injuries and three had severe injuries which require imaging, chest CT scan and X-ray and are still admitted for observation but are out of danger. Explained Mariba.
The Governor allayed fears and anxiety that construction workers could be trapped under the collapsed building.
“We have now cleared the place, no one was found beneath the debris after they were all removed. Further Nyamira Referral Hospital Medical Superintendent has accounted for all those workers they attended at the facility this evening,” confirmed Mariba.
He officially called off the rescue mission at 2000hrs and ordered security officers to cordon off the site for further investigations to unravel the cause of the tragedy.
“We will ensure expedited investigations by professionals to unravel what caused the collapse of the building and the quality of the workmanship of the Assembly building under construction.” Assured Governor Nyaribo.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Moffat Teya, told the press that the incident was very unfortunate and said the County will task the Department of Public Works, particularly the Project Manager and the entire team of engineers together with the contractor to expeditiously investigate and give a comprehensive report on the matter.
“I urge Nyamira residents to remain calm as we shall publicize the report from experts to know the cause of the partial collapse of the building and the way forward.” Teya promised.
The Treasury had allocated Sh377 for the construction of the building which had raised serious audit queries which were yet to be ironed out.
By Deborah Bochere
