The collapse

On Friday, 23 October 2026, an unfinished multi-story building collapsed in Eastleigh, a densely packed residential and market district in Nairobi, Kenya. The Red Cross put the time at around 13:40 local time (10:40 GMT) and said the structure came down on 9th Street. The Red Cross described the site in a social media post:

“At around 1340 hours, a multi-story building under construction collapsed on 9th Street in Eastleigh, Nairobi.”

Videos shared online showed a large cloud of dust as the building fell in a busy mixed-use area. The Nairobi County governor's office confirmed the collapse and said people may be trapped beneath the rubble. The Red Cross sent teams to the site, and no cause had been established in the reports available. The area is known as a hub for the Somali community.

Conflicting accounts of the building

Accounts of the building's size differ. Nairobi Police Chief Issa Mohamud said more than 10 floors were under construction, while other accounts put the building at between 12 and 18 stories. The governor's office said only the ground floor was occupied. A local resident, Abdi Aziz, told AFP that a few businesses operated in the basement while workers were building on the site. He said many of those workers had gone to the mosque for Friday prayers, and he believed few people were hurt because nobody lived there. Bibiye Mahmoud, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology of Kenya, told AFP that finishing work was under way inside and that many people were trapped there.

Rescue and looting

According to La Libre, rescue operations had not yet begun about two hours after the collapse, because tall buildings surround the site and make access difficult. Police tried to clear the area for emergency crews but fired tear gas at people who had begun looting neighbouring shops. Local media reported looting, trapped people and large crowds gathered at the site soon after the collapse. A Reuters video showed people at the scene while an excavator moved rubble. BBC Somali reported that Governor Johnson Sakaja and the Nairobi regional police commander were at the site. An official of an Eastleigh traders' committee, at the building, told BBC Somali that he had heard a mother screaming and a boy shouting that his brother was inside.

Background and open questions

DW cited a report by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis that counted 86 building collapses between 2009 and 2019, killing an estimated 200 people. County officials who issue building permits have been accused of failing to carry out adequate inspections. Nairobi is in a rapid construction boom, with high-rise buildings going up across the city as Kenya's population grows. The death toll and the number of injured were not known in the reports available, and BBC Somali said the true losses were still unclear. Rescue crews remained at the site.