Nairobi county government has waived off all the morgue service charges accrued by the victims of the Tassia building tragedy.
Ten people were killed while 36 others injured when the building collapsed in Tassia Estate, Nairobi on Friday, December 6.
Acting Health executive Vesca Kangongo on Friday, December 13, said the 10 bodies at the City Mortuary will not be charged for and relatives were free to identify and collect them for burial. She called on the affected families to contact the county’s health offices and disaster management team for any other arrangements that may help in the burial. “We have waived off all the charges as part of the multi-agency efforts to help the bereaved families give a decent send-off to their loved ones,” Vesca said.
The executive said the county is also working closely with the national government to bring to book all those involved in the construction of the building. Vesca said the county government is also considering offsetting bills of the 36 people who were injured during the tragedy. “We are going to look into all possible solutions on how we can help those who were injured through our disaster management team,” she said. The executive said this is to supplement other measures reached by the national government in helping the bereaved families and those who were injured.
Meanwhile, the county government has banned with immediate effect the contractor and the owner of the building from building any residential property in the city. County Secretary Leboo Morintant said the county will not approve any works by rogue contractors and owners whose work has led to the loss of innocent lives. “Moving forward from today, such kind of people will be blacklisted because we cannot continue giving them room to do substandard work that will lead loss of innocent lives,” Leboo said.
Leboo said the county is monitoring the state of buildings in densely populated areas in the city and will soon give a full report that could see some tenants asked to move to safer places.
