Nine Dead Following Accident at Construction Site in Hurlingham

Nine people died after a crane crumbled at a construction site in Hurlingham, Nairobi, on Thursday afternoon.

Seven of the deceased persons were Kenyans while two were Chinese nationals.

The Qwetu Residences site is located opposite the Department of Defence headquarters.

Michael Odhiambo, a carpenter at the site, said the incident affected 10 people, two of whom were nursing injuries.

Mr Odhiambo noted that the workers were taking the crane apart when the incident happened.

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The crane crumbled at least 70 metres down.

“We we’re almost breaking for lunch when it came down. One worker was left hanging for a while without help before he also fell down,” he said.

The building has 14 floors and can accommodate 700 residents.

Videos on social media showed ambulances on site as traffic along Argwings Kodhek road came to a halt.

Confirming the incident was Kilimani OCPD Andrew Mbogo who noted that the incident took place at around 12.30 pm when the operators were fixing it.

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“They were 10 workers operating the crane at around 1220 hours when it collapsed with them still on top of it. Nine of them lost their lives, including two Chinese, while one was slightly injured,” he said.

The injured worker was taken to Nairobi Women’s Hospital while the deceased were moved to Chiromo mortuary pending investigations.

“We were fearing that probably more people were buried inside the debris but somehow none has been found. The company doing the construction has accounted for all the people,” he added.

First at the scene of incident were Police and military personnel and much later a forensic team from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and a Kenya Red Cross rescue team.

Three hours after the unfortunate incident arrived a fire engine from the Nairobi County Disaster Management and Coordination department.

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