Behind the statistics of the Karen building collapse lies the heartbreak of a young family. Sheila Mwashi, the widow of 32-year-old Harrison Ngala, collapsed in tears at the City Mortuary as she recounted the last phone call with her husband, just hours before he was crushed by concrete.

Ngala was one of two workers killed when the multi-storey structure near Karen Community Church caved in on Saturday. He was a casual laborer, part of the invisible workforce that builds Nairobi’s skyline but rarely survives its failures.

The Last Conversation

"He called me at lunch," Mwashi recalled, her voice shaking. "He said the work was hard, but he would send money for food in the evening. He told me to buy milk for the baby. That money never came. The call I got was from the police."

• The Search for Answers: The family is demanding to know why the building was allowed to proceed despite warnings from the National Construction Authority (NCA). "Someone was paid to look away," said Ngala’s brother. "Now we are paying the price."
• Livelihood Lost: Ngala was the sole breadwinner. His death leaves a widow and an infant in a precarious position in the unforgiving city economy.

The Cost of Negligence

As investigations begin, the focus is on the developer and the engineers. But for Sheila Mwashi, justice is abstract. The reality is a cold body in the morgue and a promise of milk that will never be delivered.