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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A female body has been recovered from the rubble of a building collapse in Kenya's capital as search and rescue work has been called off, an official said Sunday.
Nairobi's police chief Joseph ole Tito said the operation had been completed in the debris of the four-story guest house that collapsed Saturday morning in Ruai area on the outskirts of the capital.
Joseph Gichangi, the area police chief, said receipts showed two couples checking into the guest house but leaving before the collapse.
Building collapses have become common in Nairobi, where 4 million people live in low-income areas or slums. Housing is in high demand and unscrupulous developers often bypass regulations.
After eight buildings collapsed and killed 15 people in Kenya in 2015, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered an audit of all the country's buildings to see if they were up to standard. The National Construction Authority found 58 percent of buildings in Nairobi were unfit for habitation.
In 2016, a building collapse in another low-income area killed 37 people and injured 70. The rescue work took days, and a baby and a pregnant woman were among those pulled to safety.
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This version corrects the sex of the body recovered to female.
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