Eastleigh building collapse search could end Thursday with 16 still missing, Kenya disaster unit says


Kenya's disaster unit says the search at a collapsed 18 story building in Nairobi's Eastleigh district could end on Thursday, with 16 people still missing and no one rescued since Saturday.

A Kenya Red Cross search and rescue worker and an official in an NDOC vest stand at the cordon near the collapsed building

[file photo] Kenya Red Cross and disaster response workers at the site of the Eastleigh building collapse in Nairobi, October 24, 2026. Photo: Kenya Red Cross via X

National Disaster Management Unit Director Duncan Onyango said the multiagency team had cleared about 80 percent of the rubble but had neither rescued anyone nor recovered any bodies since Saturday. "We are racing against time, but since Saturday, we have not been able to rescue anyone," he said, the Daily Nation reported on Wednesday.

Nairobi North Regional Commissioner Simon Osumba said the number of people reported missing had dropped from 20 to 16 after verification. Phone signals indicate that nine of them may have been inside the building when it collapsed on Friday, October 23, he said. Four cases await confirmation and three people have not given phone numbers. The verification also reunited four people with their families, People Daily reported.

Families at the site grew frustrated on Wednesday as rescuers struggled to reach two people detected under the rubble more than 24 hours earlier, Citizen TV reported. Kenyans.co.ke said the two were found on Tuesday evening with equipment operated by Chinese experts. Guo Hongli, a search specialist with the Chinese volunteer team Blue Sky Rescue, told China Daily the team reconfirmed the signals on Wednesday morning and that a supermarket beneath the rubble may have given anyone trapped access to food and water.

Onyango said rescuers could reach the collapsed structure from only one side. "Even if you detect a life and you are not able to access this life within the shortest time possible, then still you are not going to rescue the person," he said, Nairobi Wire reported, adding that teams would keep up recovery work if no one was found alive. Mereja could not confirm whether rescuers had reached the two by early Thursday.

The building on 9th Street stood in the busy commercial district that is home to much of Kenya's Somali community and to many Ethiopian migrants.

On Monday the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to establish whether "any act or omission by officials of the Nairobi City County Government, the private developer, contractors or other professionals" contributed to the collapse, the Daily Nation reported. Detectives have since questioned several county officers and one of the building's three owners, Kenyans.co.ke reported, and National Construction Authority officers were expected to be questioned next.

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said the county had issued no architectural or building plan approval for the building and that permits circulating on social media were forged, the Daily Nation reported. He blamed the police for releasing 14 people arrested by county enforcement officers in June. Citizen TV reported that police records show 10 of them were freed on 50,000 shilling cash bail hours after their arrest, without being charged.

Architectural Association of Kenya Treasurer Yassin Munyanya questioned how the project was registered and demanded accountability over possible regulatory failures, The Eastleigh Voice reported. Kelvin Njogu, a Kenyan X user, wrote, "When a building collapses, accountability must not collapse with it."

The Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi has not said publicly whether any Ethiopians are among the missing.

Sources

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