Travel and Personal

Building Collapse in Nairobi

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ January 24, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅ Post a comment

A six-storey building still under construction collapsed yesterday in downtown Nairobi. The casualties so far - 10 dead, 75 injured, and at least another hundred still trapped under the rubble.In a town the size of Nairobi, this makes news fast, and everyone from people on the streets to my cab driver were talking about it. Today’s morning news showed only the aftermath.The rescue effort continues valiantly. Ill-equiped authorities have asked for everything - the hospital for blood, rescue workers for drilling equipment, and coordinating agencies for food for the rescue teams. Last I heard, a team of US soldiers had joined the effort.

Firemen, police, and army personnel, supported by scores of ordinary civilians have been working for 16 hours now with hands and crowbars to break the concrete slabs. Too afraid to use heavy machinery and cranes, and lacking light drills, they cheered every surviver - the last rescue was at midnight. The dead were brought out in somber silence.

The international awareness of this issue seems - to me - surprising. People as far as the USA, Canada and the UK wrote in, and it even made CNN. I cannot explain why - tragedies like this are too common in this world. I wonder where else people have heard about it - inputs? Of course, nobody knows yet why the building collapsed, but corruption probably had a role to play.
My matter-of-fact narrative may not convey this, but it is a desparate effort. Desperate, not just for those lying buried, but for those working to save lives. Desperation at being so close, and having so little to help with.