Last week, a 18-story building under construction in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, collapsed. Regarding the claim that the building was constructed by a "Chinese company" spread online, Pengpai News reported on November 1 that this claim was not true after verification. The developer and main contractor of the project were local Kenyan companies. The Chinese company did not participate in the construction but joined the on-site rescue efforts after the accident occurred.
According to previous reports, on October 23rd local time, a high-rise building collapsed on a busy commercial street in the East Lira area of Nairobi. This area is often crowded with thousands of vendors and residents.
According to CCTV news reports, witnesses said that the building was still under construction at the time, with 18 floors already completed. It is said that people were already using the ground floor. After the building collapsed, a large pile of concrete remained at the scene. Dozens of floors were stacked tightly together, with almost no gaps between them. A large number of residents and merchants gathered there, and road traffic in the vicinity was severely congested.
The Kenya National Construction Authority revealed that the project was registered on July 30, 2025. The registered developer is 9th Street Plaza Limited, and the contractor is Stromax Holdings E.A Limited, both of which are local companies in Kenya.
According to reports from China Daily and People's Daily, after the accident, at the invitation of the Kenyan Red Cross Society, experts from the Chinese Blue Sky Rescue Team arrived at the scene on the afternoon of October 26. They brought three professional life detection devices to participate in the search and rescue efforts. Using sound waves and radar life detectors, they detected suspected life signs multiple times. It was determined that there might be survivors in the area below. The rescue workers are currently working hard to find survivors based on the clues obtained from the search and rescue efforts.
In addition, the Kenyan office of China's XCMG Group dispatched a excavator and a crane to assist local rescuers in extracting two trapped people from the ruins on the 24th. The Kenyan office of China's Road and Bridge Company also provided demolition equipment to support the rescue efforts.
The search and rescue efforts are still ongoing. The Kenyan Red Cross says that as of noon on the 29th, 16 people remain missing. After a week of continuous digging, search workers found the first remains of the victims under the debris using thermal imaging technology and search dogs on Friday (the 30th).
