South C building collapse: One body recovered as rescue operation continues
By Aloys Michael, January 4, 2026A multi-agency team has retrieved one body from the rubble of the 14-storey building, which collapsed in South C on Friday, January 2, 2026, morning.
This was confirmed on Sunday, January 4, 2026, by the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Geoffrey Ruku, during a press briefing.
“One body of an unidentified male adult was recovered from the collapsed structure. The necessary procedures, including identification and further processing by the necessary authorities, are currently underway, “the CS stated.
The second person is suspected to have been trapped in the rubble as the rescue teams ramp up efforts to recover the body.
Already, the Nairobi Governor, Johnson Sakaja, has broken his silence amid growing public pressure and criticism from political leaders as he vows action against rogue developers.
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Sakaja, who addressed the press when he visited the scene on Sunday, said that he had been out of town and made a point of prioritising the visit upon his return.
“I was away. This is the first place I have come to so that I can see what the disaster response teams are doing,” Sakaja explained.
This also comes after calls from leaders for the authorities to conduct a swift probe into the identified areas and prosecute those found culpable of the crime.
For instance, Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino called for urgent action over poor oversight that he says contributed to the collapse of a building.
Taking to X on Friday, January 2, 2026, Owino issued a public statement highlighting the risks posed by unauthorised construction and weak enforcement of safety standards.
“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the collapse of the 16-storey building under construction in South C, Nairobi County, an incident that has left families in anguish and emergency teams scrambling for survivors,” he posted on his X account.
However, on his part, Sakaja has defended his administration against accusations that it looked the other way as the building’s developers blatantly violated building regulations, even going ahead to construct two additional floors despite having obtained approvals for only 12, leading to the pancake collapse of the structure on Friday, January 2, 2026.
“There are challenges in the enforcement of the regulations that we have expressed in the past. Once a developer gets statutory approvals, as was the case with this building, sometimes when there are infractions, and they are charged, the charges get dropped, or they get a Ksh20,000 fine,” he stated.
Backlash over powers
Sakaja’s move faced backlash as Democracy for Citizens (DCP) Party Nairobi Patron, Irungu Nyakera, scoffed over his call for counties to be granted prosecutorial powers following the deadly collapse of a multi-storey building.
In a statement on Sunday, January 4, 2026, Nyakera accused the governor of deflecting blame instead of taking responsibility for failures within his administration, arguing that the county already has sufficient legal authority to prevent such disasters if existing laws are properly enforced.
“Governor Sakaja showed up two days after the South C building collapsed and is now asking for constitutional amendments so he can ‘do his job.’ That is simply deflection,” Nyakera wrote on X.
Nyakera dismissed the push for constitutional changes, insisting that Nairobi County already holds the key powers needed to stop illegal construction.
“The county already has the power to approve buildings, supervise construction, and enforce compliance to ensure what is approved is exactly what is built,” he stated.
According to Nyakera, the tragedy at South C was not caused by a lack of authority, but by a failure to act on warning signs and violations that were visible long before the building came down.
“If those powers were used, people would not be digging bodies out of rubble,” he said.