4 feared trapped after building collapse in Kajiado County
By Kenneth Mwenda, May 9, 2026Rescue teams are searching for at least four people feared trapped after an eight-storey building under construction collapsed in Oloolua Ward, Kajiado North Sub-County.
The building came down on Friday evening, May 8, 2026, leaving sections of the structure buried under heavy debris as emergency teams moved in to begin rescue operations.
The Kenya Red Cross confirmed the incident in a statement shared on X on Saturday, May 9, 2026, saying a multi-agency team had been deployed to the scene.
“Rescue operations are ongoing following a building collapse in Olenairi, Ololua Ward, Kajiado County,” the organisation said.
“Reports indicate that four people may be trapped under the debris.”
The humanitarian agency said response teams from the Kenya Red Cross, the National Police Service, the County Government and the National Disaster Management Unit were at the site conducting search and rescue operations with the support of an excavator.
Residents question rescue response
Witnesses said the building partially collapsed while construction work was ongoing. Residents living near the site said they heard a loud bang before part of the structure caved in, sending dust and rubble across the area.
Some locals rushed to the scene shortly after the collapse and tried to help before emergency teams arrived.
According to reports from the area, some of the people feared trapped are believed to have been construction workers who were at the site at the time of the incident.
Residents at the scene accused authorities of delaying rescue efforts, saying several hours had passed before specialised teams fully moved in.
“It is now ten hours since the building collapsed, and there are several people there who have been covered by the rubble. Ten hours is too much,” one resident told local media.
Another resident questioned why locals had been blocked from accessing the site while rescue operations appeared slow.
“According to me, there is reluctance by the government. They have prevented us from accessing the site, yet they do not want to conduct the rescue,” the resident said.
Police officers later secured the area to allow rescue teams to continue working safely and to prevent crowds from interfering with the operation.
The cause of the collapse had not been officially confirmed by the time of this publication. However, some residents raised concerns over the quality of construction at the site.
Rising building safety concerns
The latest incident adds to a growing list of building collapses reported across Kenya in recent months, especially in Nairobi and the surrounding counties.
In March 2026, a 22-storey building under construction in Westlands partially collapsed, leaving two workers trapped beneath the rubble. Rescue teams worked through the night to reach those affected.
Earlier in January 2026, another multi-storey building collapsed in South C, Nairobi, triggering renewed concerns over weak enforcement of safety regulations in the construction sector.
The National Construction Authority later confirmed that the South C project was non-compliant at the time of the collapse.
In another incident in Karen in January 2026, two workers died after a section of a residential construction site collapsed during concrete casting works. Preliminary findings pointed to the failure of the formwork system under the weight of fresh concrete.
Experts have repeatedly blamed poor construction practices, weak supervision, use of substandard materials and failure to follow approved building standards for the rising number of collapses.
Authorities have also faced criticism over enforcement failures, with concerns growing about unsafe developments in rapidly expanding urban areas.