Men Who Survived Shauri Moyo Sewer Tragedy Recount Chilling Ordeal: "Ilikuwa Saa Saba Usiku"

• Two men who survived the Shauri Moyo sewer tragedy described how events unfolded on the fateful morning
• One of the men said he narrowly escaped death when a coworker called him out of the excavation site before the incident
• The other person rescued from the scene said he was buried up to his chest in sand while the rest of his coworkers were fully covered

Two men who were lucky enough to survive the Shauri Moyo sewer collapse described how the incident occurred.

What did the Shauri Moyo survivors say?

One of the men rescued from the collapsed site said the incident occurred around 1am on Friday, September 13.

He said that when he was rescued, he saw some of his coworkers lying dead beside him. He added that the soil had buried him up to his chest after the collapse.

"Only three people came out alive. I saw one man beside me dead, another man right beneath me was also dead. I left them covered in the soil. The head of the one who was close to me, was completely covered," he said.

He decried that their employers did not give them any protective gear when they entered the sewer line.

"We were just told to go into the sewer line. We were using torches to see as we worked," he added.

The other man said he narrowly escaped death after his coworker called him out of the sewer line to help mark the area as inaccessible just moments before the tragic incident.

"I didn't go back into the sewerline. I sat outside. Something told me to go buy a cigarette and begin taking puffs, that's when I saw people running towards the site. When I went to look inside, I found three of the men still alive but the other four were completely covered by sand," he recounted.

They urged the government to conduct a thorough search to ensure no one remains trapped in the sewer line.

How many people died in Shauri Moyo collapse?

Earlier, National Police Service spokesperson Resila Atieno Onyango said that four people were confirmed dead, while three others were rescued.

The three rescued people were taken to Mama Lucy Hospital following a joint operation by the Nairobi City County Fire Brigade, NMS Ambulance, Kenya Red Cross, and Kenya Police.

The workers were reportedly excavating a sewage line when the tragedy occurred.

Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura Guthua, journalist and copy editor at TUKO.co.ke