Twelve floors of concrete came down in Eastleigh, Nairobi, and the city's governor wants someone to answer for it. Johnson Sakaja is calling for stricter penalties against developers who cut corners, pointing to the collapse of an incomplete 12-storey building as proof that the current system is not working.
Sakaja is also pushing for county governments to regain prosecutorial powers, arguing that local authorities need real legal teeth to hold rogue developers accountable. Right now, that authority sits elsewhere, and he believes that gap is part of the problem.
Eastleigh is one of Nairobi's busiest and most densely populated neighbourhoods, which makes a collapse of this scale all the more alarming. The building was still under construction when it came down, raising urgent questions about oversight, inspection, and who approved the project in the first place.
Whether the governor's calls will translate into actual policy changes remains the real question to watch.
Originally published by AllAfrica.