Female Casual Worker Dies After Being Hit by Falling Wood at Site in Parklands

Tragedy struck a construction site when a female casual worker died after she was hit by a falling piece of wood in Parklands, Nairobi.

Agripina Khayesi, 29 was among more than a dozen workers at the construction site when the incident happened on Wednesday January 8 evening.

She was on the ground floor of the structure under construction when the piece of timber fell off and hit her on the head, witnesses said.

She was rushed to hospital where she succumbed due the head injuries.

Police visited the scene and the hospital before the body was moved to the mortuary.

The team said they are investigating the tragedy.

This is the latest such incident to happen in the sector.

Dozens of construction workers are annually killed at sites in accidents, which investigators say are unavoidable.

Some of the incidents are pending under probe while others have been solved through compensation.

Hundreds of workers flock to various sites for a living but some die or are injured at the places.

Officials say lack of protective gear and failure to follow procedures in the construction are the leading causes of the tragedies.

Corruption has also been cited as part of the reasons the accidents happen.

Last month, three people died after falling off from a house under construction in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area.

This increased to four, the number of those who died at the same site.

Officials said the incident is under probe. Most contractors in the area have been accused of failing to follow the rules in their work. This has led to such tragedies amid calls on authorities to take action to tame the trend.

Police, officials from the National Construction Authority and counties have been accused of being compromised hence the accidents.