Four rescued six days after Kenyan building collapse

A Kenyan official said that three more people have been rescued after being trapped for six days in the rubble of a collapsed building, bringing the number of those rescued yesterday to four.

Nairobi’s police chief, Japheth Koome, said two women and a man were rescued yesterday after an eight-month-pregnant woman was rescued earlier in the day.

The rescue of the four people comes as the death toll from the collapse of the seven-story building rose to 36 and 70 people remain missing.

A nearly six-month-old baby was rescued on Tuesday, which raised hopes that more survivors would be found. The infant was found unharmed in a washbasin four days after the building collapsed.

About 135 people have been rescued. Dozens are still missing, and officials have warned repeatedly they do not expect to find any more survivors.

On Monday, authorities arrested Samuel Kamau, the owner of the six-story residential building. He was expected to appear in court this week.

The apartment building, located in a low-income, highly populated neighborhood, had been condemned by authorities. There has been no official explanation from government officials as to why the evacuation order went ignored.

The building was close to a river. Homes nearby have also been declared unsafe, as rains have caused a series of floods and landslides.

President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered an audit of every building in the country last year after eight structures collapsed, killing at least 15 people. A report from the Architectural Association of Kenya estimates that half of the structures in Nairobi are not up to code.