Nairobi — The increasing number of collapsing buildings in Kenya was on Thursday blamed on councils' lack of capacity to monitor and supervise work.

Architectural Association of Kenya chairman Steven Oundo said local authorities lacked qualified personnel for the job.

He spoke after one person was killed and four others seriously injured when a wall collapsed at a building site in Nakuru on Tuesday.

Mr Oundo said there was a shortage of engineers, architects and quantity surveyors to inspect the buildings and ensure the safety of site labourers and occupants on completion.

"It's lucky this accident occurred early, otherwise we would have had a major disaster if more progress had been made," he said.

Mr Oundo said Nakuru, the fourth largest town in the country, had one engineer and one architect.

"This is a big town which is growing fast and it needs a minimum of four engineers and a similar number of architects for proper town planning and supervision of construction."

He said a similar problem had been identified in Mombasa, Kisumu and Kisii, with Mombasa having two architects and two engineers, Kisumu one architect and Kisii none at all.

Unstable soil

Mr Oundo said although Nairobi faced the same problem, private experts were available for consultations and supervision.

He appealed to the government to allocate more money in the next budget to the Local Government ministry to recruit building and construction experts for the local authorities.

He asked engineers to be careful when laying foundations for storeyed buildings in Nakuru because of its unstable soil.