Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir expressed his anger at stubborn tenants after a four-storey building near the Mackinnon Market in the Marikiti area collapsed on Saturday, May 27, 2023.
The building, which had been declared unsafe for occupation in a notice dated May 12, 2023, by the Mombasa County Lands and Housing Department, was due for demolition but caved in before bulldozers arrived.
No one was injured when the building collapsed just hours after the Mombasa County government sent a team to forcefully evacuate all the tenants.
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Speaking to the press after arriving at the site of the collapsed building, Governor Nassir expressed anger at the stubborn tenants who had refused to evacuate.
"Tenants walikua hawataki kuskia. Wakapatiwa tena warning and then ultimately leo before this incident, natoa shukurani kwa county officials, the area MCA, walikuja na wakawatoa kwa nguvu wale watu. Ilibidi wawe forcefully removed na baada ya kuwa forcefully removed ndo hii nyumba ikaja ikaanguka," Nassir lamented.
He noted that if the tenants had not been forcefully kicked out of the building the county government would be collecting bodies instead.
The Mombasa governor further congratulated the county team and assured them of his backing to implement directives like evictions in other places.
"Ingelikua watu wamesleki hapa hawakutolewa, leo tungelikuwa twaja kutoa maiti hapa. You did the right thing and you have my backing. Sehemu yoyote ambayo watu hawasikii you forcefully remove," he said.
