Teenager killed by falling stone at Eastleigh construction site

A teenager on Wednesday evening succumbed to injuries inflicted on him by a falling stone as he walked past a building under construction in Eastleigh.

The incident occurred around 6 pm along Second Avenue, 7th Street in Eastleigh.

Abdikaff Mohammed, 19, was then rushed to Care Hospital where he succumbed to head injuries.

The body was moved to Masjid Abubakar Mosque ahead of autopsy and burial later on Thursday.

His death, though under probe, opens a lid on safety lapses at construction sites in the country especially in the Eastleigh neighbourhood and other parts of the city that are experiencing a construction boom with many residential apartments coming up.

Worrying numbers

Last December, three workers lost their lives and 12 others sustained injuries when a construction platform collapsed at Pangani's Bajuun Towers construction site in Juja B Estate.

In October of the same year, a 42-year-old casual labourer died after being hit by a falling stone at a construction site in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

Police said the man, identified as Vincent Matasio, died on the spot after the stone hit him on the head along Eastleigh Sixth Street on Saturday.

At least three other people died from accidents at construction sites within the Eastleigh area last year alone.

In June, a 36-year-old man identified as Julius Wanyonyi, who had just reported at one of the construction sites in Eastleigh, fell from the third floor of the building and died on the spot.

In May, a building block from an adjacent building under construction in Eastleigh fell and killed a two-year-old boy.

The boy was in his parent's house when the huge block from the unfinished building ripped through the roof of their home, killing him instantly.

According to an assessment by the Institution of Engineers of Kenya, Nairobi County experiences about 64 fatalities per 100,000 in construction sites each year.

"This is significantly higher compared to the UK which experienced 0.44 fatalities per 100,000 employees in 2013, China experienced 3.8 fatalities per 100,000 employees in 2013 while South Africa experienced 25.5 fatalities per 100,000 employees in construction sites," the report by the Institution of Engineers in Kenya adds.

It further noted that there is no reliable data on accident cases in construction because most contractors do not report all the accidents.

Other than deaths, other construction site workers have been left crippled and without a source of income as a result of such accidents.

These accidents, it said, mainly occur due to a lack of safety rules in most construction sites and when they exist, the regulatory authority is weak in implementing each rule effectively.

In other cases, corruption has been blamed for these accidents where regulatory agencies receive bribes to look the other way.

Similar findings by the Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh) show that about 237 accidents were recorded in construction sites in a four-year period, with 32 fatalities in Nairobi.

About 115 men aged 21-40 years were seriously injured during this period, some of them sustaining lifetime disabilities.

Most injuries in construction sites were as a result of being hit by falling objects (17 per cent), injuries as a result of workers falling from heights (15 per cent), injuries as a result of operating motor vehicles or light machines (13 per cent) and lifting heavy objects (11 per cent).