National Construction Authority warns landlords not to add extra floors to occupied buildings
In recent years, several buildings have collapsed due to poor construction standards and unauthorised modifications, resulting in loss of lives and property.
Landlords have been warned against adding extra floors to occupied buildings, as the National Construction Authority (NCA) cautions that such practices pose severe safety risks and violate construction laws.
Speaking during an interview on NTV, NCA Executive Director Maurice Akech stressed that developers must follow proper procedures before extending buildings.
More To Read
"It is illegal to extend a building while people are occupying it. It is also illegal to extend a building beyond the approved floor numbers," Akech warned.
According to the NCA, any landlord planning to expand a building upwards must first relocate tenants and obtain new approvals.
However, if the extension is horizontal, the structure must be properly secured to ensure the safety of current occupants.
"If you want to work on a building that is already occupied, then you have to move people out and continue the construction until it is finished," Akech stated.
"There are two types of extensions: an extension on top, which you cannot do while people are inside, and an extension on the side, which must be properly secured with safety routes clearly identified," he added.
Akech noted that restarting construction on a stalled building requires a fresh permit. Under the National Construction Act, the National Building Code, and relevant county laws, all approvals are time-bound.
If a project is delayed beyond the permitted period, developers must request an extension or reapply for approval before resuming work.
"If you started a storied building going up to four floors and stopped at the second, you should know that the license shall have expired. This is because the approvals have a time limit," Akech explained.
"For instance, when you go to the county for approval, they give you about 24 months. If you are not able to complete it within that time, you have to request an extension. This is because many things will have changed," he added.
Growing concerns
The warning comes amid growing concerns, especially in Nairobi, where tenants have reported landlords extending buildings without proper safety measures.
In recent years, several buildings have collapsed due to poor construction standards and unauthorised modifications, resulting in loss of lives and property.
In 2024, the National Building Inspectorate (NBI) audited 20,649 buildings in Kenya, identifying 962 as dangerous and in need of urgent testing, evacuation, or demolition.
Nairobi accounted for 688 of these hazardous structures, the highest nationwide highlighting the capital's struggles with poorly regulated development.
Despite these alarming findings, only 210 of the flagged buildings nationwide had undergone structural integrity testing.
This represented a fraction of the over 12,000 unsafe structures flagged by the NBI, underscoring systemic gaps in enforcement and technical capacity.
Informal developments, particularly those encroaching on riparian, railway, and road reserves, further complicated the crisis, with over 10,000 such illegal structures demolished to date.
The safety risks come amid inefficiencies in the building approval process.
Between January and October 2024, Nairobi City County received 1,761 development applications, marking a 13 per cent decline from the 1,985 applications recorded during the same period in 2023.
Top Stories Today
