Nairobi gubernatorial aspirant Irungu Nyakera has criticised Governor Johnson Sakaja over his handling of the South C building collapse, accusing him of shifting blame and deflecting responsibility instead of enforcing existing county laws.
In a statement issued on social media, Nyakera faulted the governor for what he described as a delayed response to the tragedy, noting that Sakaja visited the site two days after the building collapsed.
“Governor Sakaja showed up two days after the South C building collapsed and is now asking for constitutional amendments so he can ‘do his job.’ That is simply deflection,” Nyakera said.
The former Kenyatta administration official argued that Nairobi County already possesses sufficient constitutional and legal authority to approve building plans, supervise construction and enforce compliance to ensure approved designs are adhered to during implementation.
“If those powers were used, people would not be digging bodies out of rubble,” he said, adding that seeking more authority after failing to utilise existing powers amounted to an attempt to mask incompetence.
Nyakera maintained that the tragedy was not the result of constitutional gaps but of weak enforcement and governance failures at the county level.
“We don’t need to amend the Constitution. The governor just needs to do his job,” he said.