- Relatives of at least 31 missing persons gathered at the collapse site through the night as rescue teams worked without rest
- A construction worker and a shopkeeper are among those feared trapped inside the rubble of the 18-storey building
- A communication link that had briefly connected rescuers to survivors in the basement was lost, deepening fears for those inside
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Desperate relatives kept a second overnight vigil at the scene of a collapsed 18-storey building along 9th Street in Eastleigh, Nairobi, on Wednesday, refusing to leave as multi-agency rescue teams continued cutting through layers of reinforced concrete in search of survivors.
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The mood at the site was one of quiet anguish. Families pressed against police cordons, worn down by sleeplessness but unwilling to move, their attention fixed on every movement of the heavy machinery slowly dismantling the massive heap of debris.
Peter Baraza, a relative of one of the construction workers believed to be trapped on the fourth floor at the time of the collapse, described the helplessness his family was feeling.
"He was one of the construction workers at the collapsed building and he was on the fourth floor when the building collapsed. We have called his phone through all his numbers but it is switched off and now we are left with nothing but to wait," he said.
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Baraza also called on the government to deploy at least one additional excavator to speed up the recovery effort, saying the family was prepared to face whatever outcome awaited them.
A similar story of uncertainty unfolded for Abdikadir Mohammed, whose sister-in-law had reportedly stepped out briefly to attend a mosque before returning to her basement shop moments before disaster struck.
"She had just returned to the mosque and went back to her shop when the incident happened. We have not been able to communicate with her, we did not get her on phone. Since yesterday we have been here sleeping here as the rescuers continue with their job," Mohammed recounted.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, rescue teams had managed to establish brief contact with people believed to be alive in the basement level, raising hopes across the site.
That lifeline was later lost, with officials suspecting the phones of those trapped had run out of charge. The silence that followed was difficult for waiting families to bear.
Vincent Ochieng', a National Disaster Management Unit official, confirmed the scale of the crisis.
"As of now, we have 31 cases of missing persons that have already been reported at our desk. Some of them are those that were workers who are still within this site," he said, adding that rescue operations would continue through the night.
As darkness settled over Eastleigh for the second consecutive night, families remained rooted to the spot, watching excavators claw through the rubble and holding on to whatever hope the hours would still allow.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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