The last man out, and the colleagues he fears are beneath.

In Eastleigh, a neighborhood of Nairobi where the streets are crowded with traders and the buildings rise floor by floor in a constant negotiation with demand, the ground gave way on Friday afternoon. An eighteen-story building under construction collapsed at approximately 1 p.m., sending more than a dozen floors crashing down upon one another, stacked like pancakes, with little space between them . The number of people trapped remains unknown. The number who escaped is a matter of seconds.

Joseph Kaula, a plasterer working on the fifth floor, heard the screams and saw his colleagues rushing outside. "I was the last person to walk out before it collapsed and the whole area was filled with dust," he said. He suspects a few of his colleagues were trapped in the basement . One injured woman was rescued and hospitalized. Another person who had been crying for help went silent, according to Nairobi police chief Issa Mohamud .

The rescue effort has been complicated by the circumstances. Police fired tear gas at people who had begun looting neighboring shops, seeking to clear the area for emergency teams. Mohamud warned of a possible secondary collapse, as the fallen structure was leaning against a neighboring building . Heavy equipment was scarce in the early hours; rescuers in hard hats used poles stripped from trees to probe the rubble. One excavator arrived to move concrete bound with steel, and by evening at least two more backhoes had reached the site .

The building's ground floor had been rented out as shops—an electronics store, a butchery, a grocery—while construction continued on the upper floors. Residents said some of those trapped had called for help immediately after the collapse, but their phones later became unreachable. A tent was set up for people to report the missing. How many might be inside the wreckage was not known .

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said the building had been approved for construction but did not have a certificate of occupation, meaning the ground-floor shops were operating unlawfully. He argued that county governments need stronger enforcement powers, describing lenient penalties for non-compliance as "a slap on the wrist" for developers who violate regulations . Building collapses are a recurring problem in Nairobi, where officials responsible for permits have been accused of failing to conduct adequate inspections .

"Investigations will be carried out," Mohamud said. "We'll make sure people face the law for any negligence" . The promise is familiar; the question is whether it will be kept.

For the families gathered at the tent, waiting for word, the afternoon has become an exercise in patience and dread. The dust has settled. The excavators have arrived. The phones that once connected the trapped to the living have gone quiet. What remains is the rubble, the rescuers, and the slow work of finding out who is still beneath it.

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AI Image Disclaimer: The images accompanying this article are AI-generated and do not depict the actual collapse or individuals involved.

Sources: Associated Press, Xinhua, Los Angeles Times, The Korea Times