The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) have wrapped up their emergency assignment in Mombasa, marking the end of a high-stakes demolition of a dangerously unstable building in the city.
In a notice dated May 9, Defence Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya confirmed that the military personnel had been withdrawn and returned to their barracks after completing the controlled demolition of the seven-storey structure. The building, located at Kilifi Corner in Fayaz Estate along Abdel Nasser Road, had been declared a serious public risk after it began to sink on April 2.
This marked a historic first the country’s first-ever military-assisted controlled demolition. The KDF was brought in to handle the delicate operation due to the complexity and potential danger posed to neighboring residential and commercial properties.
According to the official notice issued under Section 34(3)(a) of the Kenya Defence Forces Act, the deployment was terminated on April 9 after the building was safely brought down. The intervention came amid growing alarm from residents, who feared the compromised structure would collapse at any moment, endangering lives and property in the densely populated area.
Governor Abdulswamad Sherrif Nassir later revealed the root of the building’s failure: unauthorized borehole drilling that destabilized its foundation. He added that parts of the ground floor had already sunk by nearly three meters, leaving the structure on the brink of collapse.
The swift response by the government supported by the military likely averted a major disaster. With the building now demolished and the KDF mission concluded, attention shifts to investigating how such structural negligence went unnoticed until the crisis point.
