True RV was right...2/3 of building in Nairobi would collapse on a serius quake

[RV Pundit]

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http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Shoddy-Nairobi-buildings-at-high-earthquake-risk/-/539546/2536326/-/p9440w/-/index.html

[RVtitem]

No one designs for earthquakes especially for residential houses that are 5 storeys and below. Travel along outering near pipeline estate and you see 7 storey "flats" with tiny beams and columns that literally stand on stone blocks.Most of these stones do not pass through KBS or any QA body to ascertain their true strength.....same case situation in rebar of low quality being sold in Kenyan market. I have seen every quack engineer assume a ca 5-10mpa compressive strength of stone. So Kenyan fundis are pushing the frontiers of construction industry into new limits. People literally tell fundis "build me a flat like that one across the road".

The council engineers approve anything if you tip them well and a proper design may get delayed for no reasons.

The good thing is that the gods have been quite tolerant of the Kenyan situation, no serious earthquake has struck us in the recent generations.

[Georgesoros]

Nobody knows when an earthquake can hit, so everyone is at risk.
And we are only talking of Nairobi!!!

[TrueRV]

There are several reasons that make an earthquake deadly or very deadly. Normally it is the inability of buildings to wove according to the wave of the quake. That is not the question here.

The core of the problem in Kenya is how they use cheap labour and how reinforcement steel is used on each building. Concrete can only stand compression, the rest is left to steel. 

I learnt from a friend that nearlly ALL identical buildings in Nairobi are copy cats from other buildings. That is to say if on building was approved in South C you can build a similar one in Kasarani, Mathare, etc. This kind of system is nothing less than EVIL

[RV Pundit]

True, although am ignorant on matters structural integrity, i tend to see many houses esp in developed world goes burst in small tornado, storm, or fire, landslide or earthquake. Most of them are built using timber and really light panels. I find kenyans building to be very strong....given they are mostly built using stones and reinforced concentrete. I think if you use 9 by 9 stones..for 1 storey you do not even need steel.

Let not talk about africa thatch grass house and manyatta that seem to have wistood anything our nature has thrown at them.

Maybe all this is just alarmist.

There are several reasons that make an earthquake deadly or very deadly. Normally it is the inability of buildings to wove according to the wave of the quake. That is not the question here.

The core of the problem in Kenya is how they use cheap labour and how reinforcement steel is used on each building. Concrete can only stand compression, the rest is left to steel. 

I learnt from a friend that nearlly ALL identical buildings in Nairobi are copy cats from other buildings. That is to say if on building was approved in South C you can build a similar one in Kasarani, Mathare, etc. This kind of system is nothing less than EVIL

[Omollo]

I am not that religious. But having casually looked at the effects of possible mild natural disaster my conclusion was that God has to continue saving Africa from the disasters that hit all other continents. Africa has not suffered any major (or minor natural disaster) for as long as the living humans can recall. Ni Hurricane, No earthquake, No large scale flooding - nothing really. These things just hit Asia, Americas and Europe. 

The closest we got is the DRC volcanic eruption.

We do have man-made disasters such as the World War in DRC. Then there is HIV and Ebola.

However the day an earthquake hits a major African city, the initial casualty figure would stand at 200 000 dead. But the post disaster casualty would be ten times more!

If by any chance it be a cold blizzard bringing freezing (below zero conditions) then we shall count the survivors and forget about the dead.

There is simply no preparedness. Those placed in charge of preparedness, look at it as a lucrative joke! They day of reckoning will come and then you will gnash your teeth and call on God; Yet plans can be made now. It is simple. Prepare for a war scenario. It works for disasters as well.