The ongoing demolitions of buildings that had been earmarked as unsafe for occupation has been halted due to what officials say is lack of funds to facilitate the exercise.

According to the National Building Inspectorate, Moses Nyakiongora, the demolition exercise is quite expensive and lack of funds has made it impossible to carry on with the demolitions.

“This exercise is usually very expensive, unavailability of funds at the moment has slowed down the exercise,” said Nyakiongora.

The National Construction Authority marked more than 600 buildings for demolitions after an audit done in 2016 declared them unsafe.

Nyakiongora also noted that most of these buildings, which were declared unsafe and earmarked for demolition are still occupied, saying its unfortunate and the process of bringing them down needs to be expedited.

“It’s unfortunate that people are still renting these marked buildings and that’s why we want to bring them down with immediate effect before they collapse and cause damage,” he said.

Even with the demolitions, developers are still erecting substandard buildings that do not meet all the safety requirements and cases of buildings collapsing and consequently killing occupants have become the order of the day.

1 person died while 23 others were rescued in Malindi in October after a building under construction collapsed in the latest incidence. In June three people were killed after another building collapsed in Huruma Estate Nairobi just 3 months after two others were killed in pipeline estate after a seven-story building collapsed.

Last month, the Ministry of Housing and Urban development put on notice 3,000 buildings which are under construction countrywide.