On April 2, at around 6:40 pm, a nine-storey building at the Kilifi area near the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in Old Town ward cracked and tilted under its own weight.
More than 447km away in Nairobi, Governor Abdulswamad Nassir received the information via a call.
Little did he know, the following days would be some of the most stressful days of his life, but with the most positive of outcome. He witnessed history being made.
“It was one of the very tense moment for me but following the advice of scientific notes from experts, we had to make the bold decision,” Nassir said.
He immediately flew to Mombasa, assembled a team and started deliberations on the best course of action.
“We then realised this thing was not as simple as we had imagined,” Nassir said.
Further analysis of the building and the area suggested it would be impossible to demolish the building using cranes as was first envisioned. This would have endangered many more lives including the crane operators.
On April 5, the task force formed decided that the military be involved and upon assessment, the Kenya Defense Forces said the only safe way was to bring down the building controllably using explosives.
It was a risky venture, but one that had to be done.
Under the military advice, a radius of 1.2km was deemed unsafe, where the impact of the explosives would be felt directly and indirectly.
A vacation notice had to be issued to all occupants of the neighborhood. A command centre for the operation was set up at the Tononoka Hall where all planning was conducted.
“The most difficult part was not the demolition itself but coordinating the evacuation of 60,000 people. People were skeptical at first because it had never been done before. This had only been seen on TV in movies," Nassir said.
“So, we did a mass campaign to get the people to vacate temporarily using community health promoters, NGAO, village elders, the Mombasa subcounty administration and the inspectorate,” he said.
All the county executive committee members and chief officers were assembled for a meeting and tasked with coordinating their departments in readiness for any eventuality. Each was given an of operation.
“The CEC in charge of blue economy had to ensure all fisher folk did not use the Madhuba beach area,” Nassir said.
Noting that the success of any venture is 90 per cent in the planning and 10 per cent in the execution, Nassir knew this could be a make or break moment for the county and the coordination had to be perfectly in sync.
On April 8, the eve of the demolition, all the pre-action planning meetings were held and all teams briefed. The room was tense but the military exuded a level of confidence that was infectious.
The 1.2km radius was zoned into three different layers. Layer 1, closest to the site, was guarded by the army, layer two was guarded by the police in conjunction with the county inspectorate, while Layer 3 was guarded by the county inspectorate.
“This was so that if anyone breaches through the layer three, chances of them breaching layer two would be much more difficult and if successful, layer one would be impossible,” the governor said.
"The plan was to conduct the demolition at 8 am on April 9, but upon a final check-up before the action, it was discovered that some people, including elderlies, within the 1.2km radius were adamant and would not leave their houses."
This was discovered because some people were streaming live on TikTok from adjacent buildings.
“I got calls from young people telling me their grandparents had refused to leave their houses,” Nassir said.
Another round of door-to-door communication and messages on local radios to ask people to move out were required.
“Then there was the issue of Yusuf Ali Abdi who entered the building minutes before it started tilting on April 2. We received that information about two or three days before the demolition happened,” he said.
This meant Nassir had to sit with the family to explain the situation and assure them everything would be done to retrieve the body.
On demolition day, some 17 ambulances from different government departments and private sector and some five fire engines were put on standby.
Five hospitals were also prepared to receive any emergency cases.
“Everything they said would happen, happened the same way they said. I was taken through the simulation of how it would go down and it was exactly as they showed me,” he said.
He said the explosive detonators were placed at very specific areas and the 1.2km radius was a result of the calculations that the military did.
“They explained to me about the explosion and the net effect – the air pressure, the debris, everything. That is why we advised people to leave their windows open so that the pressure went in and out through the windows,” he said.
He noted the windows that broke as a result of the explosion had been shut, against advice.
He noted the Nyali bridge had to be closed to traffic not because of the structural integrity but because of the flying debris, the sound and air pressure.
“The sound and air pressure would have caused anyone to panic and probably lose control of their vehicle and plunge into the sea,” he explained.
At around 12.30 pm on Wednesday, April 9, every single person involved in the operation had to give their green light before the detonators were sent off.
“The people in charge of traffic had to confirm no one was on the road within the 1.2km radius, the evacuation team had to give their green light, all people had to give their green light before the detonation,” he said.
He said during the 1998 bomb blast in Nairobi, some people were hurt yet they were very far away from the blast site.
This was because of the flying glasses and debris.
“Luckily, this building had no glass yet,” he said.
At 12.55pm, history was made. The first ever controlled demolition in Kenya, and probably in Africa, happened in Mombasa.
The writer was at English Point Marina attending a National Syndemic Diseases Control Council workshop and the sound of the explosion sent everyone scampering to the floor, before rushing out of the room to try and see the building going down.
History had been made, but they had missed it.
Nassir said: “Since all the explosives went off at the same time, everybody just saw and felt a slump, heat wave, dust and within seconds, everything was calm again, except for the dust.”
He said the grieving family was one of the most emotional episodes he had to deal with.
“I don’t blame the family for being adamant that about the retrieval of their kin’s body. But the most important thing about being a leader is to constantly talk to them and explain the situation to them calmly. Eventually, they understood and on April 13, the body was finally retrieved,” he said.
The interest in the operation, Nassir said, was so high that the private sector were asking to be involved in one way of the other, so as to help out.
That is why the private hospitals donated their ambulances and fire engines.
The county has since suspended two county employees, including the county architect, and stopped works in 20 sites where the engineers, architects and inspectors involved in the demolished building are also involved in.
