The National Construction Authority (NCA) will have the power to demolish faulty buildings in the country if a proposed law amendment sails through parliament.
NCA is seeking the new powers through the National Assembly when it amends the National Construction Authority Act 2011.
Upon successful amendment of the law, NCA will be able to investigate, arrest engineers, architects and quantity surveyors responsible for faulty buildings and prosecute them.
Section 2 of the NCA Act 2011 only permits the agency to suspend the construction of buildings if flagged for non-compliance.
For years, the agency argued that this impeded their ability to crack the whip on developers, which has seen the country experience tragedies following the collapse of substandard buildings.
"The National Construction Act is amended by inserting the following new section; the board may institute an inquiry into defects in a building to establish the cause of the defects on its own initiative or upon receipt of a complaint addressed to the board in writing made by or on behalf of any person alleging defects in a building approved by a registered person," the proposed bill reads in part.
On October 27, 2020, NCA conducted a crackdown across Nairobi on contractors working on unapproved construction works.
The crackdown was aimed at checking the level of compliance in the ongoing construction of building activities around the city.
The government through the agency on September 1, 2020, gave a deadline for all developers with stalled buildings to adhere to safety terms or face demolition.
In a notice, the regulatory body noted that the abandoned construction sites and excavations posed a safety hazard to the public.
The move by NCA proceeded a series of incidents where several buildings have collapsed across the country in the recent past.
On December 6, 2019, a six-storey building in Tassia Estate, Embakasi East collapsed claiming the lives of several people.
Reports later emerged indicating that the building had been flagged by concerned locals and the NCA.
