{"id":7319,"date":"2026-10-18T11:24:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/?p=7319"},"modified":"2026-10-18T11:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:24:39","slug":"unsafe-building-sites-in-kenya-what-the-lapses-cost-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/?p=7319","title":{"rendered":"Unsafe building sites in Kenya: What the lapses cost businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kenya\u2019s regulators can say which buildings are unsafe. They are much less able to make the people behind them pay. The business risk is real, but it arrives late, unevenly and often on someone else.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Our Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manzil Towers, a building under construction in Nairobi\u2019s South C estate, collapsed at about 4am on 2 January and killed two security guards. Nairobi City County says it had taken enforcement action against the project in May, July and December 2025, and the National Construction Authority (NCA) says it was non-compliant when it fell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June the Director of Public Prosecutions approved charges against dozens of officials, developers and professionals. By August the High Court had halted the prosecution of 18 county planning officers, who argue that liability belongs with those who controlled the physical build. None of the allegations has been tested in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the verdict, the sequence poses the question this series asks: when does a weak control become a business risk rather than a regrettable cost? The evidence supports a narrower answer than \u201csafety pays\u201d. For most Kenyan builders, cutting corners is cheap most of the time. It becomes material at four identifiable points: when a regulator stops a site, when a director or signing professional is personally exposed, when an insurer or lender wants proof, and when a client writes safety into the tender. Between those points, workers carry most of the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is being carried<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour PS Shadrack Mwadime told a safety-day event that 10,797 workers were injured at work in 2025, 430 of them fatally, and that 2,508 accidents were reported in the first quarter of 2026 against 2,501 a year earlier. By my arithmetic, about 4% of reported injuries were fatal. The count depends on employers filing reports, and the PS used the occasion to urge them to report every injury promptly. Read the figures as a minimum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction is where failure is most visible. The NCA says an audit of 14,925 buildings found 10,791 unsafe, 723 very dangerous and 2,194 safe. Those categories do not add up to the total, and the Ledger has not seen the audit, so treat the numbers as indicative. The authority also estimates that collapses since 1990 have killed more than 200 people and cost the economy over KSh2.4 billion in investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it stays cheap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enforcement is slow. The NCA says at least five building owners and 10 government officials have been charged over collapses that killed more than 100 people, and most of those cases have dragged on for more than five years. Defying a stop order is a known tactic. In Kisii the NCA suspended work on a four-storey building in September 2024 and the developer resumed before obtaining clearance. It collapsed in April 2025, killing five. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margins explain part of this. Ronald Mbiu of Endelevu Designs says the sector has been shrinking since 2015, so firms put scarce money where it reaches revenue soonest. Tony Onyango, a site engineer at Ark Construction, says safety officers are rare on informal residential sites, and where they exist the client usually required them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this shows that unsafe building is financially irrational. The Ledger found no public data on what a stop order costs a developer in idle capital, or on whether insurers price a contractor\u2019s safety record. Without those figures, saying that corner-cutting reliably destroys value would be an assertion, not a finding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where it bites<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoppage and penalties.<\/em> The NCA says it can halt a site for a missing signboard or perimeter fence, breaches of safety rules, unaccredited workers or an unregistered contractor, and a compliance certificate does not protect a site where it finds breaches. Defying a suspension risks a fine of up to KSh3 million, three years in prison or both. A fine of that size is modest. The cost of an idle, indebted site is the real exposure, and nobody publishes it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal exposure.<\/em> Prosecutors approved charges of making false documents against an architect and two others over South C. They further allege that a forged county approval was uploaded to the NCA\u2019s registration system. Separately, the planning officers cite an indemnity form in which the developer allegedly promised to shield the county from liability for any collapse or loss of life. If genuine, it shows liability being contracted back to the builder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurance.<\/em> Every employer must hold work-injury insurance, and failing to do so is a criminal offence. Premiums for this cover reached KSh13.3 billion in 2022, according to the Association of Kenya Insurers\u2019 industry report as cited by an industry publication. Whether those premiums reward good safety records is the unanswered question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procurement.<\/em> This is the lever with the clearest logic. Onyango says that when a client sets a safety standard at tender stage, contractors price it and deliver it. Safety then becomes a line the client has paid for, not a cost the contractor avoids. The Building Code 2024, in force since 1 March 2025, bars contractors from starting work until owners understand their safety duties. The NCA says it is building a World Bank-funded inspection manual and moving towards mandatory inspections from foundation to occupation certificate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boardroom test<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directors, lenders and investors in any firm that builds, or hires those who do, should ask four things. Can management show records of incidents, near misses and stop orders, and what each cost in idle time? If not, the risk is unpriced. Who signs the approvals and inspections, and has anyone checked that the documents are genuine? Does the tender price safety, and does the contractor\u2019s contract with its subcontractors do the same? And if the regulator halted the largest site tomorrow, what would a week cost, and who pays?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to watch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch whether the South C prosecution reaches developers and contractors as well as officials, whether mandatory inspections start, and whether lenders and insurers begin asking for site-level safety records. Until a stop order or a charge shows up in a project\u2019s cash flow, the Kenyan evidence supports a modest claim. Safety failures are a material risk for those who can be stopped, charged or made to prove compliance. For everyone else on the site, workers still carry it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenya\u2019s regulators can say which buildings are unsafe. They are much less able to make the people behind them pay. The business risk is real, but it arrives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"ledger_sector":[],"class_list":["post-7319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-responsible-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7321,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions\/7321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"ledger_sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fledger_sector&post=7319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}