Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir ordered the arrest of rogue constructors and engineers after carrying out a comprehensive audit of buildings.
In an address to the press on Sunday, November 27, the county boss noted that the audit unearthed a sneaky trick that some developers employed during the construction exercise.
He noted that a decent number of developers had applied for building permits with different designs but ended up constructing own designs not approved by the state.
As a result, he announced that officials from the County Government would, From Monday, November 28, start arresting rogue developers who failed to surrender for regularisation.
"There is a decent amount of people who (applied sneaky tactics in construction). What they applied for was different from what they were building which we have put stop orders. They need to regularise the same," he stated.
He further noted that so far, two developers had already surrendered and were seeking to settle their cases out of court.
The audit flagged three buildings that were still under construction as hazardous.
"Our intention is not to lock people up or do anything else. Our intention is to make sure that the safety of people is taken care of.
"We are now creating a system that will be 100 per cent non-human interference. You will not need to be connected. Just apply and we shall consider your application. The only time we shall have a human interference is when the inspector visits the site," he added.
On November 23, the Governor issued a seven-day ultimatum to unscrupulous contractors involved in non-compliant buildings to apply for development permission.
"The building audit task force has found serious violations regarding building construction without necessary permits or in contravention of the conditions of approval," read part of the notice at the time.
The directive came after three buildings collapsed in Kiambu and Nairobi counties in a span of one week claiming about a dozen lives.
Two of the buildings were still under construction while a residential one had developed cracks forcing emergency evacuation of all tenants.
