The collapse of a multi-storey building in Eastleigh has turned into a bitter fight over who allowed it to go up. Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, who wants Sakaja's job in 2027, are now trading legal threats over whether City Hall ever approved the project.

The building on 9th Street (Yusuf Haji Avenue) came down on Friday, October 23. By Sunday, four people had been pulled out alive and were in hospital. MSMEs Principal Secretary Susan Mang'eni said 47 people had been reported missing. The Kenya Red Cross had traced nine of them to their families, and the rest were still being verified.

Six-hour ultimatum

The row started on Sunday afternoon. At about 1.27pm, Babu Owino posted on X and Facebook a document dated February 13, 2024, which he said proved that Nairobi City County had approved the development. Kenyans.co.ke and Capital FM say the document grants permission for a 35-unit residential development, with a restaurant, a mosque and shops, on Plot LR No. 36/II/40 in Kamukunji Sub-County. The MP said Sakaja had misled the public by claiming the building had no approval. He also alleged that Sh120 million changed hands to secure the permit. No one has independently established that claim.

Within hours, Sakaja's lawyers wrote to the MP. They gave him six hours to take the posts down or face legal action, saying the posts were misleading and were damaging the governor's reputation.

Babu Owino refused. "Let's meet in court, SAKAJA. I will not apologise to a man who has destroyed the lives of Nairobians," he said on Monday, as quoted by Capital FM. "If you have nothing to hide, answer the hard questions. We shall meet in court." He added that the city's construction regulators must explain what happened, and said, "we will not allow this tragedy to be swept under the carpet."

'Change of use is not approval'

Sakaja says the document is being misread. He says the county received an application in August 2024 and approved only a change of use, from residential to mixed residential and commercial, in October 2024. He says the county never approved the building plans for the high-rise.

"Development approval has never been granted," the governor said, according to The Standard. He added that if the building had been approved, "I would have named the officers who approved it."

Sakaja has also released police records. He says they show the county did act against the developer. The Standard reports that an Occurrence Book entry shows 14 suspects were booked at Kamukunji Police Station on June 17, 2026, after county officers arrested them over breaches of city planning laws. A separate police record shows 10 suspects released on Sh50,000 cash bail. The records do not show whether anyone was charged.

"We want the police to explain why the suspects were released without being presented in court," Sakaja said. He also asked why construction carried on after the arrests. He argues that a Sh50,000 penalty means little to a developer putting up a building worth hundreds of millions of shillings.

Push for county prosecutors

The governor is using the disaster to press a long-running demand that counties regain powers to prosecute offences under their own laws. Kenyans.co.ke has seen a letter, reportedly dated April 16, 2026, in which Sakaja asked the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to gazette special county prosecutors and approve six officers nominated by the county. He wrote that enforcement had weakened since the gazettement of county prosecutors was revoked in early 2024.

The prosecutor's office has since complicated his account. In a statement on Monday, the Office of the DPP said Nairobi City County had never forwarded an inquiry file on the building's construction. It directed the DCI to investigate the developer, contractors, professionals and county officials, and said anyone found culpable would be prosecuted "irrespective of their position or status," The Star reported.

Members of the Nairobi County Assembly are also asking questions of City Hall. Nairobi South MCA Waithera Chege, the assembly's Deputy Minority Leader, told The Star that the governor should look into cases where unauthorised officers may have signed off approvals. "The law dictates that the CEC in charge of planning is the one to issue approvals," she said. Baba Dogo MCA Geoffrey Majiwa raised concerns about supervision in the planning department, including cases where junior officers were supervising senior ones.

Photos: The Standard (Governor Sakaja at the Eastleigh collapse site); Capital FM (Babu Owino).