Two more survivors were rescued by 3am Thursday, but hopes of finding others still buried in the rubble of the building that came down on Wednesday were slim.
The municipal council absolved itself from accusations of neglect, saying it was the role of the private engineers on site to supervise the construction.
According to Town Clerk Christopher Rusana, the council had conducted its role in overseeing the design and the construction of the building.
Testing materials
The materials used for building, he added, had been taken for testing at the council laboratories to determine their quality.
Nyanza provincial commissioner Francis Mutie said his office had set up a disaster committee to assist those rescued and track down their families.
“We also want to start a serious crackdown on unfit buildings because we have noticed that numerous developers are coming up with buildings that are rising up at very fast yet they are not well inspected by engineers,” said Mr Mutie.
Workers at the site said they had been forced to work extra time by their supervisor to compensate for the time “they wasted going for lunch”, Aska Adhiambo, one of the survivors who was in charge of mixing cement at the ill-fated building, said of the supervisor. “A few minutes later, the building came tumbling down,” she said.
Most of the workers had been hired the previous week and had worked since Monday, the Nation learnt. They were paid Sh400 a day for nine hours.
Six of the dead were identified as Silas Otieno, Jared Opiyo, Dennis Onyango Otieno, Erick Kerina, Joaness Otieno Job and Stephen Otieno. The seventh could have been a pupil.
Rescue operations went on into the better part of the night. One of the two rescued yesterday and taken to hospital was a woman.
Red Cross regional assistant secretary-general Emmanuel Owako said 26 were admitted to Kisumu District Hospital and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Memorial and Referral Hospital.
He said more people were feared to be still trapped under the debris.
According to Julianna Otieno, chief superintendent at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga hospital, 28 people were brought to the hospital and 14 admitted, including one woman.
Steven Odiwour Odindo, 20, a survivor of the tragedy, told the Nation that he had already finished his shift for the day and was packing up “on the fourth floor when the building collapsed. We came down with it and next thing I knew, a wall hit my hand and my shoulder.”
He sustained head and shoulder injuries and is admitted to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital.
Aska Adhiambo, a mother of four, had a leg operated on after a log got stuck into it.
- Daily Nation
