Eastleigh Building Collapse: How Authorities are Using Phone Signals to Trace Missing People

The rescue operation has entered its fifth day, with only two people rescued since Saturday. (Abdirahman Khalif)

Nairobi North Regional County Commissioner Simon Osumba says authorities are using phone signals and information provided by families to trace people reported missing following the collapse of a building in Eastleigh, as rescue operations enter their fifth day.

Osumba said 52 people had been reported missing by their relatives, with 30 having been accounted for, while efforts continue to establish the whereabouts of the remaining 20 people.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, he said the Kenya Red Cross Society had helped reunite people reported missing with their families, while the organisation and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) continued tracing those whose whereabouts remained unknown.

He said the teams were using telephone numbers provided by relatives to establish the last known locations of the missing people through signals obtained from mobile service providers.

“Kenya Red Cross and DCI are tracing the 20 missing people using the phone numbers given,” Osumba said.

He explained that the teams were following up on the phone signals to establish the locations associated with the numbers and determine whether the people could be accounted for.

Osumba said technology was being used to verify the reports and establish the whereabouts of everyone whose family had raised concerns, adding that the teams were working to confirm the figures as the operation continued.

Assistant Inspector General of Police Duncan Onyango said rescue teams were still concentrating on the underground sections of the collapsed building, where some of the people believed to be missing were thought to have been working when the structure collapsed.

Onyango said authorities were taking precautions to protect rescuers as they continued searching the site, and asked the public to remain patient while the teams carried out their work.

He explained that tracing the missing people had been complicated by incomplete information provided by some families, including cases where relatives could not provide telephone numbers or identification details for the people they were seeking.

The police official also said 11 casual workers who had been at the site could not yet be traced because they had provided only one name and had not given telephone numbers that investigators could use to establish their whereabouts.

Onyango said the teams were relying on mobile service providers to track the signals of phones linked to people reported missing, although the process had faced challenges because some mobile phone numbers had not been used recently or were no longer transmitting signals.

He added that some workers might have left their phones at particular locations before going to work, meaning the devices could remain at those places even if the workers had moved away when the building collapsed.

Onyango said reports of missing people also needed to be verified because some families had already been reunited with relatives who were later found to be outside Nairobi.

“Once we are through with the exercise, we will get the figures correctly,” he said.

He said authorities would provide confirmed figures after completing the verification and rescue exercises, warning that reports circulating before the process was completed could contribute to speculation about the number of people still missing.

The rescue operation has entered its fifth day, with only two people rescued since Saturday, as emergency teams continue searching the collapsed structure for survivors and establishing whether anyone remains trapped beneath the debris.

The operation brings together the National Police Service, Kenya Red Cross Society, Nairobi County Fire Brigade, National Disaster Management Unit, National Disaster Operations Centre, Ministry of Health, St John Ambulance and other emergency responders.

The teams have continued working at the site while investigators establish the circumstances surrounding the collapse and authorities seek to account for people whose families have reported them missing.