Nairobi — The owner of a building that collapsed in Kiambu, killing 16 people, was on Tuesday arraigned in court and charged with manslaughter.

Mr Stephen Kimani Kamau was charged alongside Mr George Ndung'u Kiarie (Kiambu Municipal Council engineer), Mr Edward Njoroge (building designer), his personal instructor Moses Gichiko Kiragu and the contractor Premji Patel.

They were brought before Kiambu principal magistrate Kevin Muneeni and charged with causing the death of 16 people on October 19 in Kiambu.

Though the charges read to them were 16 similar accounts, they were in two different files.

In the first file, they were charged with causing the deaths of Joyce Karimi, Anasia Wanjiku, David Njane, David Wachira, George Ng'ang'a, Gorgon Odhiambo, Wilfred Njagiru, Francis Irungu, Amos Mutua, Charles Kamau, Austine Oduor and Dixon Kariuki.

They all denied the accounts and were granted a Sh500,000 bond or cash bail of Sh300,000 each.

The case in this file will be mentioned on November 10 and heard on December 2 in the same court.

In the second file, they were charged with causing the deaths of Jacob Nzioki, Vincent Fundi, Nicholas Mungai and Peter Muchune.

They were also granted a Sh500,000 bond or a cash bail of Sh300,000 each. The case will be mentioned on November 10 and heard on November 30 in a different court.

The bail was granted after their lawyers pleaded with the court, saying the accused had surrendered themselves to police.

But the lawyers' bid to seek wholesale bond to the accused failed after the magistrate said the charges were serious and had applied to each of them.

The court issued a warrant of arrest for Mr Patel for failing to appear in court.