A boda boda rider identified as Jacob has given a harrowing account of the moments just before a 13-storey building under construction came crashing down in Eastleigh, Nairobi, on Friday, 23 October 2026.
Jacob told NTV Kenya that he had just dropped off a customer at their destination and was making his way across the road when an unusual sound stopped him in his tracks.
He turned towards the source of the noise and watched in disbelief as the towering structure collapsed within just two minutes.
Jacob recalls hearing sound
“I heard a sound, and when I looked, the building was coming down,” he recounted, the trauma of what he witnessed still evident in his voice.
At the time of the collapse, the building was a hive of activity.
Workers were reported to be operating on the ground floor and first floor, while construction crews were also active near the top of the structure. Dozens of people were said to be inside when it fell.
Ordinary Friday afternoon turn catastrophic in Eastleigh
The speed at which the building gave way left little time for those caught inside to react.
Jacob’s account paints a grim picture of an ordinary Friday afternoon that turned catastrophic in the span of moments, with workers going about their tasks before the structure they depended on for their livelihoods gave way beneath and around them.
The incident has raised urgent questions about construction safety standards in one of Nairobi’s most densely populated and commercially active neighbourhoods, where buildings regularly rise amid bustling street activity.
