Owner of building that collapsed in Malindi surrenders to police

By Rob Liban

One of the owners of the building that collapsed in Malindi on Friday, October 26 was on Monday detained after he presented himself at the Malindi Police Station.

Malindi DCIO Anthony Sunguti confirmed that Shabir Ali Fakhruddin had surrendered and was being interrogated by detectives.

He added that the suspect will be detained to allow police complete investigations into the incident that left one dead and 14 others injured.

Ali, who is a director of Palm Developers Limited, is said to be the son of Shabir Kasamale who died in the Friday incident.

“We are holding the owner so that he can help us ascertain if construction of the building was cleared by relevant government bodies and if they had the relevant documents,” said the DCIO.

The police boss added that Ali, who went missing after the incident, told detectives he was in Mombasa with his relatives.

“He said he was shocked by the bad news and ended up switching off his cell phone immediately,” he added.

An engineer by the name Daniel Wesukula Mukhonga was also arrested when he appeared at the site of the building and was taken to court.

“We have requested for more time to complete investigations,” added Sunguti.

The engineer was presented before Chief Magistrate Julie Oseko who allowed his detention for 21 days.

“We haven’t leveled any charges on the suspects until results from the National Construction Authority (NCA) laboratory are out,” he said.