NAIROBI — Ten days after an 18-storey building under construction collapsed in Nairobi's Eastleigh district, 16 people are still unaccounted for — and the area's member of parliament has said he will seek a parliamentary inquiry into why rescuing them has taken so long.

Source: People Daily, Kamukunji MP calls for probe into Eastleigh rescue operation, November 1, 2026

Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan, speaking to journalists in Eastleigh on Sunday, November 1, said hopes of finding anyone alive were fading. “It is growing rather sad and tragic. The operation has gone on for too long, and at the moment we have lost hope that, in fact, this far, nearly ten days after the collapse, that we can really find any person alive, barring a miracle,” he said, according to People Daily.

The building came down at about 1 p.m. on Friday, October 23, along 9th Street in Eastleigh, a busy commercial district of the Kenyan capital. By Sunday, six people had been rescued alive and one body had been recovered from the rubble, while 16 people remained unaccounted for, People Daily reported.

The one body recovered so far — a woman's — was retrieved early on Friday, October 30, the eighth day of the operation, and taken to Nairobi City Mortuary for identification, including DNA testing, Nairobi North Regional Commissioner Simon Osumba said, according to Radio Generation. Osumba said a verification exercise by the Kenya Red Cross and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) put the number of missing at 16, and that mobile phone data had placed nine of them at the site shortly before the collapse.

Rescue teams — drawn from the National Disaster Management Unit, Nairobi County emergency services, security agencies and the Kenya Red Cross — had cleared about 90 per cent of the debris by Sunday, with the hardest work left in the lower sections and basement, where some of the missing are believed to be trapped.

For one family, the weekend brought a flicker of hope: the mobile phone of a missing 22-year-old woman, unreachable for eight days, became reachable on Saturday. When relatives called, the line was answered but no one spoke — they say they could hear the sound of excavators in the background, Pulse Kenya reported. Awaaz Punjab is not naming her while her fate remains unknown.

“You cannot spend eight, nine, ten days at just one building. Those are too many days,” Hassan said, questioning whether Kenya had enough emergency personnel and heavy equipment for a major disaster. “My expectation is that when Parliament opens, I will be raising a motion seeking an inquiry into the work being done by our disaster management department.” He also appealed for every person trapped — including those who have died — to be retrieved, saying families waiting at the site are suffering every day.

Source: People Daily, Kamukunji MP calls for probe into Eastleigh rescue operation, November 1, 2026

Accountability questions are already moving on a second track: Kenya's Director of Public Prosecutions has directed the DCI to investigate possible negligence, omissions or misconduct by public officials, developers and construction professionals involved in the project, Eagle News Feed reported. The National Construction Authority has identified the developer as 9th Street Plaza Limited and the contractor as Stromax Holdings E.A. Limited, according to Radio Generation.

The collapse has also shut roads around First Avenue, Second Avenue and Ninth Street, choking trade in one of Nairobi's busiest shopping districts. Hassan said he has pressed Nairobi County to clear the debris and reopen the roads, but business has yet to return to normal.