After a second successive day of heavy downpours, Mombasa County was put on a high alert on Saturday, April 22, with construction experts warning that some apartments risked sinking.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir sounded the alert after touring one of the flooded regions in Utange, Bamburi Ward.
Abdulswamad and the County Disaster Management team further set up rescue centres for hundreds of residents affected by the flooding as a short-term measure.
“We should be lucky that most parts of Mombasa have proper drainage. Otherwise, it would have been a disaster already.
“But if the rain continues for another day, we are staring at imminent tragedy,” the governor warned.
Abdulswamad added that as his administration continued to offer humanitarian aid to those affected, he would crack the whip on landlords who set up structures without proper permits.
“Those landlords who rented out houses without occupation licence, we will deal with them,” he read the riot act.
The governor added that he would conduct an internal audit of his administration to ensure that officials who issued building permits without proper inspection faced the full wrath of the law.
“This is why in the past, I gave orders for buildings that did not have all required permits to be destroyed. When you see me angry, understand that it is for the good of the county,” the governor remarked.
In November 2022, Abdulswamad halted the construction of 162 buildings noting that they did not comply with construction standards.
“I hereby order and direct the immediate issuance of stop orders on these structures and immediate regularisation.
“Hazardous buildings under construction do not meet the bare minimum safety standard and do not have approvals,” the governor stated back then.
The National Construction Authority (NCA), in November 2022, estimated that 200 people died and 1000 were injured in collapsed buildings in the last 5 years.
