Nyakitumwa’s family endured 15 days of uncertainty as emergency teams searched through the rubble, hoping she would be found alive.
A routine shopping trip turned tragic for 34-year-old Dora Nyakitumwa, who died after a multi-storey building collapsed in Eastleigh, Nairobi, trapping her and several other people beneath the rubble.
According to reports, Nyakitumwa had left her home on October 23, 2026, to purchase household items. She was reportedly inside a curtain shop on the ground floor when the building suddenly came crashing down.
The collapse trapped shoppers and workers under tonnes of concrete and debris, triggering a rescue operation as families desperately sought information about their missing relatives.
Nyakitumwa’s family endured 15 days of uncertainty as emergency teams searched through the rubble, hoping she would be found alive.
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However, their hopes were dashed when rescuers eventually recovered her body. Her husband, John Simiti, reportedly received a telephone call asking him to go to the scene to identify her remains.
Her death has left behind a grieving husband, children and other relatives.
The incident has also raised concerns about building safety and possible negligence, with reports indicating that businesses on the ground floor were receiving customers while construction work was still ongoing on the upper levels.
The circumstances have sparked questions about how commercial activities were allowed to continue in a building that was still under construction and whether the required safety precautions had been observed.
The tragedy has renewed calls for stricter enforcement of building regulations, regular inspections and improved safety measures to protect occupants, workers and members of the public.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the collapse had risen to eight by November 5, after rescue teams recovered six more bodies from the debris, according to reports.
For Nyakitumwa’s family, the tragedy marked the devastating end of what had begun as an ordinary trip to shop for curtains.
