Police on Monday, November 21, arrested the owner of the six-storey building that collapsed in Ruaka, Kiambu County at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) while she was attempting to leave the country. 

The suspect according to Kiambu County Commissioner Joshua Nkanatha had gone into hiding for four days and had resurfaced for his escape mission.

The 59-year-old woman identified as Jennifer Kamau was boarding a plan bound to Texas, USA when she was arrested, but was then taken ill and is at a city hospital awaiting arraignment.

The Ruaka building collapsed on Thursday, November 17 at 3.00am, crashing a neighbouring house and instantly killing two people and injuring others who were asleep in the house at the time. The deceased were reportedly a couple and parents to children who escaped the tragedy with injuries.

The owner of the building, engineers and county officials are among those whom charges will be filed against as according to the County Commissioner, they were directly culpable of the loss of life and property.

“There is loss of life and damage of property, people died in Kirigiti and Ruaka so there are so many things that we are looking at," he stated while speaking at the scene of yet another collapsed building in Ruiru which came down on the morning of Monday, November 21.

The Ruiru building on Sunday, November 20, began showing signs of imminent collapse after cracks began forming on the walls ,prompting evacuation operations by the Kiambu County Government led by Governor Kimani Wa Matangi, and managed to move out 200 occupants.

The hunt for unscrupulous agents and contractors has intensified as law enforcement and state agencies are now embarking on the formation of a multi-agency team which will be tasked with the inspection of buildings to mitigate such occurrences.