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Small Children Among Dozens Rescued After Building Collapse in Kenya; Trump Battles Detractors; How Leicester City Became the Giant Killers. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired April 30, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Rescued from the rubble: small children among dozens saved after a building collapsed in Nairobi, Kenya.
As Donald Trump closes in on the Republican presidential nomination, his detractors want him to know that he's not on Easy Street yet.
And from rank outsiders to Premier League leaders: how giant-killers Leicester City got to within a game of the English title.
It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for joining us, I'm Natalie Allen.
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ALLEN: We begin with a deadly building collapse in Kenya that killed at least seven people in Nairobi, the nation's capital. Search teams are now desperately trying to reach those feared buried under the seven-story multi-family house.
Kenya's Red Cross says scores of people may be trapped under the rubble but workers have been able to communicate with several survivors. Among the dozens of those rescued, two babies, one seen here, and several children.
The cause of the collapse is still unknown but heavy rains and floods may have played a role there. For the latest, let's go to Robyn Kriel. She joins us live from Nairobi.
And, Robyn, what do we know about the circumstances surrounding this disaster?
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, it's been raining pretty much nonstop here in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, ever since yesterday morning. So for about the last 24 hours, we've bean heavy, heavy downpours. And yesterday evening were some of the strongest rainfalls.
This particular area is the area of Mathare, it is an area that we have seen building collapses in the past. So this happened at about 9:00 pm local time. Rescue crews trying to react as quickly as possible.
But, unfortunately, with the rain, the traffic in (INAUDIBLE) in this city, when it does rain, gets very, very bad. We do understand that there were some delays getting to the site.
And as you say, complete chaos once this building collapsed. We can see from those just incredible visuals coming through, you can see schoolchildren's backpacks, people's shoes, people trying to get out as quickly as possible to try and rescue their loved ones.
Kenya's Red Cross, as per usual during disasters like this in the past were playing a huge role in trying to both control the crowd that was trying to get there to help and to watch as well as trying to rescue people.
So a really, really, really concerted effort by the Kenya Red Cross and other emergency response operations. Also, Natalie, the Kenya defense forces eventually had to be called in to try to contain the area and try to rescue those buried underground.
This is not the first time that we have covered a story like this in Mathare slums. Of course, it is a very poor area. Oftentimes buildings go up without a whole lot of -- without much thought really to where they should be put. And oftentimes they are there put on land that is not as stable as it should be to build land -- to build buildings like that, especially seven stories high.
So (INAUDIBLE) these covered mudslides that killed dozens of people in the particular slum as well, terrible news there. And unfortunately, the rain has not abated, Natalie. It's been a really, really (INAUDIBLE) to making things very, very tough for people on the ground, trying to rescue, trying to find those trapped underneath the rubble.
ALLEN: Yes. And as you talk, Robyn, we are watching all of the people that have come to help, so many rescue teams, officials and neighbors alike. So they have made contact with people buried who are alive.
What are you hearing as far as real chances in this weather and, with time ticking on, that they will reach them?
KRIEL: Well, I think they're still talking and there is a concerted effort. And as we heard from Kenya Red Cross, the Kenyan defense force is there and of course there are also people who's lending a helping hand. Anyone that can will go there.
And we really see this community effort come out in Kenya when disasters like this happen and especially when the rain is not abating at all, when traffic would be so bad in that particular area, when there would be so many people trying to get to that particular area.
So we are hopeful that there will be more people rescued if they can just get the right equipment. However, Kenya doesn't have things like sniffer dogs and things of -- some of the things like that that can respond in emergency, real tough quality emergency evacuations, people who can get in there and help rescue those people.
But we do know that there is a concerted effort and, hopefully, with the efforts of the Kenyan defense forces --
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KRIEL: -- with the efforts of the Kenyan police, Red Cross and things like that and without having perhaps the best equipment in the world, they can still, with enough numbers, help rescue those people who are inside.
We do know that seven people at the moment have been confirmed dead, 128 injured, Natalie, as you said. And we're hoping that that death toll doesn't rise. Also very concerning that there might be some children inside the building as well.
ALLEN: All right. And, Robyn, I know that you are south of Nairobi, there standing in front of huge piles of elephant tusks and rhino horn. And you're about to report on amazing event there as they bring attention to the killing and the poaching of elephants and rhinos.
What's going to happen there behind you in a few hours?
KRIEL: In a few hours, Natalie, President Kenyatta, Kenya's president, will be setting ablaze 105 tons of elephant ivory and 1.35 tons of rhino horn as well as other illicit materials, wildlife materials confiscated by the Kenya wildlife service.
This is really a message by the Kenyans, Natalie, that they believe that elephants and other animals that are poached for their precious contraband, they're worth more alive than dead..
Their message is that despite the fact that the pile of ivory that you see behind me is worth up to $200 million on the black market rate, they are saying that it's absolutely worthless if it's not on a live animal. And that is the message that they're trying to send to the world today, to the poachers.
There has been a lot of controversy, Natalie, about why burn this ivory, that $200 million could be used much better, for example, they could invest that into conservation efforts, perhaps flood the market.
But Kenyans are adamant. They're saying that unless they burn this ivory and they want a complete ban on all trade of international and domestic trade of ivory and (INAUDIBLE), that until that happens, that they're finding ivory and rhino horns completely worthless unless it's on an animal.
ALLEN: We certainly hope it goes well. They're going to have a fire and it may be raining on that. I tell you, thank you so much, Robyn Kriel, we know you'll be covering for us.
And I want to turn over to Derek Van Dam, our meteorologist. Derek and I are standing here, we can't believe how loud that rain is.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. ALLEN: In our earpieces.
VAN DAM: Yes, you can just hear it in the background there, just completely coming down in torrents. And it's not going to let up anytime soon, Natalie. And there's strong evidence that this heavy rain that's taking place in the capital of Kenya had a role in this building collapse, unfortunately.
Get to the visuals. We'll talk a little bit more about this. Just so you can see some of the first images coming out of the daylight hours there, of the search and rescue efforts, still raining in that region.
Interesting to know that there's just such a high demand for housing in Nairobi, especially in the outskirts, that some property developers bypass building regulations to cut costs and maximize profits. And even some of the architectural societies of Kenya say that 50 percent of the structures in Nairobi are not up to code.
So you can imagine what heavy rainfall does to poorly constructed buildings, like the building that, unfortunately, collapsed there some 12 to 16 hours ago. And not to mention that many of these buildings are built on the edges of rivers that are very prone to flash flooding.
Look at this map behind me. This is a graph, climatological data; breaks down each month by month how much rain we would expect to see this time of year. You can see that spike in April and May, this is the rainy season for Central Kenya, including Nairobi.
And really rainfall amounts in excess of 200 millimeters throughout the course of the month, not out of the question. It's just that they saw that much rainfall in a very short period of time. And that led to flooding.
So we're taking you in with Google Earth imagery into the northeast suburbs of Nairobi. And this is the Huruma area where the building collapse took place. And it's situated between two rivers, the Nairobi River to the south and the Mathare River to the north. A bit difficult to see but we'll get in a little bit closer so you can get a better perspective on the building chain here that actually went down in the surrounding blocks of flats around that area that were impacted.
That's the river. And that is a very narrow river. So any amount of rainfall that comes through that region has the potential to flood quite easily. And if the buildings are constructed in such a poor manner, you can imagine how easy it is to take down any kind of poorly constructed building like that; 185 millimeters of rainfall in just a four-day period across this area. There's still more rain to come.
As you heard in Robyn Kriel's live shot just a moment ago, it is continuing to bucket. It's all thanks to this inner tropical convergence that kind of dictates the weather patterns across Kenya and much of Central --
[03:10:00] VAN DAM: -- Africa. And they shift further north during this time of the year, overspreading showers and heavy bouts of rainfall.
You can see our precipitation forecast going forward shows more rainfall for Nairobi, maybe upwards of 100 millimeters of rain. So the potential of flash flooding continues. So that is going to be a concern going forward, especially considering that there are people still trapped under some of the rubble.
This could mean hypothermia as well as temperatures dropping into the teens overnight. I'll leave you with this and you can see some of the images coming out of that area, flooded roadways, Natalie, actually delayed the rescue efforts of personnel trying to get to the scene of the collapsed building.
And you can see some of the images coming out of Nairobi and just how difficult these conditions actually are.
ALLEN: All right, thank you, Derek, for bringing us the latest.
South Africa's high court says President Jacob Zuma should face his more than 700 corruption and fraud charges. Prosecutors dropped them in 2009 before Zuma's election. The high court called that decision irrational. Now the prosecutors have to decide if they will reinstate the charges against the president. Mr. Zuma has denied all allegations.
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ALLEN: For the second day in a row, protests turned violent at a Donald Trump event. The Republican front-runner for the White House was set to give a speech at California's state Republican convention. The protesters blocked his motorcade, forcing him to walk to the venue's back entrance.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more about it.
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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tensions rising in California. A large group of demonstrators flooding streets outside the California Republican Convention, protesting Donald Trump's appearance.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That was not the easiest entrance I have ever made.
SERFATY: The front-runner's motorcade dodging the crowds, Trump forced to enter and exit his speech on foot to avoid protesters.
TRUMP: We went under a fence and through a fence. And, oh, boy, it felt like I was crossing the border.
SERFATY: The protests occurring a day after hundreds of demonstrators clashed with Trump supporters outside his rally in Costa Mesa, all this as Trump sells his candidacy to GOP insiders in California, one of the last primary states on June 7 that could play a decisive role in delivering Trump the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination.
TRUMP: We have far more votes than anybody else, far more delegates than anybody else and we're going to hit that number I think quite easily.
SERFATY: As Trump focuses on closing out the race in California, Ted Cruz is slogging it out in the trenches of Indiana. His campaign sees Tuesday's primary as crucial to blocking Trump's path to the nomination and pushing the race toward a contested convention and the senator is pulling out all the stops.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Governor Mike Pence is an optimistic, positive, unifying force.
SERFATY: Cruz picking up the support today of Indiana Governor Mike Pence.
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: I am not against anybody, but I will be voting for Ted Cruz.
SERFATY: But Pence's endorsement lukewarm.
PENCE: Whoever wins the Republican nomination for President of the United States, I am going to work my heart out to get elected this fall.
SERFATY: Also offering plenty of praise for Trump.
PENCE: I particularly want to commend Donald Trump who I think has given voice to the frustration of millions of working Americans with the lack of progress in Washington, D.C.
SERFATY: Trump, who also courted and hoped for the endorsement of Pence:
TRUMP: I have met with him. He may not endorse. I don't think he will endorse anybody actually and he may endorse us.
SERFATY: Not letting enough for Cruz.
TRUMP: Have we branded this guy or what? He probably -- I see him walking into these beautiful corridors in Washington. The guys said, hey, Lyin' Ted. How you doing?
SERFATY: But is saving his fiercest fire now for Hillary Clinton, intensifying attacks on his potential general election rival.
TRUMP: No, crooked Hillary. She said very strongly, I don't like the tone of Donald Trump. The tone. Now, she is there shouting all night long, reading off teleprompters.
SERFATY: And taunting Clinton over Twitter, calling her the most dishonest person to have ever run for the presidency and one of the all-time great enablers, as Trump adopts a softer tone against Bernie Sanders.
TRUMP: I really want to beat her more than Sanders.
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ALLEN: Insult after insult. Trump has been attacking his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. As you just heard, he --
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ALLEN: -- has called her Crooked Hillary and says that she's only in the Democratic lead because she's a woman. Now in a CNN interview, Hillary Clinton is responding.
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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak. I'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me.
He can say whatever he wants to say about me. I could really care less.
You know, I don't respond to his attacks on me. I think it's kind of silly.
I was elected to the Senate twice from New York. I was someone who got more than 18 million votes the first time I ran. I now have 2 million more votes than Donald Trump has, more than 12 million votes to his 10 million. So it doesn't really square with reality.
As I said Tuesday night, if playing the women's card means standing up for the concerns that women have and that they express to me, then deal me in, because that's exactly what I have always done for decades, what I will do in this campaign.
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ALLEN: That's Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump takes center stage. CNN's "POLITICAL MANN" has all angles of the presidential race covered. Errol Barnett fills in for host Jonathan Mann later at 7:00 pm in London. We'll have more on the front-runner's face-off.
Plus: a closer look at Trump's big foreign policy speech and the offer Trump made to Caitlyn Jenner that she could not refuse.
Jokes and jabs are expected on Saturday in Washington. A big event for journalists. Celebrities, journalists and politicians mingle at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Everyone's nice together. This will be Barack Obama's last appearance as president. Comedian Larry Wilmore from Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show" will be the host.
But one controversial figure will be absent. Here's Sara Murray with that.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to Nerd Prom, the one weekend a year when celebrities flock to D.C. for a weekend of parties with the Beltway elite. But this year one celebrity guest won't be making the trip: GOP front- runner Donald Trump.
As Trump recently explained to "The Hill," "I was asked by every single group of media available to mankind. But I've decided not to go.
"Do you know why?
"I would have a good time and the press would say I look like I wasn't having a good time."
Trump was probably referring to that time he came as a guest of "The Washington Post" in 2011 and appeared unamused to find himself the butt of many jokes.
SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.
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MURRAY (voice-over): President Obama, having just released his long- form birth certificate at the insistence of critics, including Trump, dug in even deeper.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald.
And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like did we fake the moon landing?
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MURRAY (voice-over): Just days earlier, Trump boasted about the role he played in urging Obama to release the form.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You raised this, saying the president should release this.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have done a great service to the American people. I got him to release a birth certificate that he should've done three years ago.
MURRAY (voice-over): The issue clearly got under Obama's skin.
OBAMA: We do not have time for this kind of silliness.
MURRAY (voice-over): But by the time Nerd Prom rolled around Obama got the last laugh.
OBAMA: And, all kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: For example -- no, seriously. Just recently, in an episode of "Celebrity Apprentice..."
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: -- at the steakhouse, the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks and there was a lot of blame to go around.
But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so, ultimately, you didn't blame Lil' Jon or Meat Loaf.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Well handled, sir, well handled.
Say what you will about Mr. Trump. He certainly would bring some change to the White House. Let's see what we've got up there.
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MURRAY (voice-over): Even though Trump insists he enjoyed the dinner, it certainly didn't appear that way, says former senior White House advisor, David Axelrod.
DAVID AXELROD, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: There were a series --
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AXELROD: -- of devastating jokes and everybody was looking at Trump, who seemed mildly irritated by them and, by the end, kind of walked out of the thing and didn't hang around.
MURRAY (voice-over): In just five short years, how things have changed. Trump began doling out checks to GOP causes and landing speaking spots at conservative functions. Now, he's the GOP front- runner and it appears the joke is on Washington.
TRUMP: A lot of people have laughed at me over the years. Now they're not laughing so much, I'll tell you.
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ALLEN: Sara Murray reporting there. Don't forget to join CNN for our special coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Who will they poke fun of this year?
It begins on Sunday morning at 12:00 am London time, that's 1:00 am in Paris and Berlin.
Just ahead, Leicester City just one game away from history. We'll show you how they're finding success by drawing on their owner's culture.
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ALLEN: Leicester City Football Club will play for the English Premier League title on Sunday. This is a world event. At the beginning of the season -- get this -- their odds to win were at 5,000:1. But they're here now. And have just one more team between them and history.
The bad news?
That team is the storied Manchester United. A few very lucky fans or savvy gamblers stand to win a lot of money if Leicester wins the Premier League. There were 47 bets made on Leicester winning the league at the start of the season, according to Ladbrokes Online Betting, each of those bets had odds at 5,000:1.
Twenty-three of the bets still stand; the others cashed out early. If you bet 20 pounds, about $29, on Leicester City to win it all, you could win more than $145,000 on Sunday.
Ladbrokes estimates it will pay out more than $4 million total if Leicester wins the title. Leicester City's historic run to the championship has surprised football analysts. Many pundits are wondering what could be driving their success?
As our Christina Macfarlane reports, fans in Thailand believe they have a spiritual edge.
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CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Leicester City's improbable rise to the top of the Premier League has stunned the footballing world. While pundits in Europe grapple to understand the secret for their success, here in Thailand, the home of the club's owners --
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MACFARLANE (voice-over): -- football fans believe it's more to do with spirituality than skills and tactics.
For the past three years, monks have been traveling from the temples here in Bangkok all the way to Leicester City football grounds to bless the pitch and share secret fabrics with the players. And one monk is credited with turning the club into an unstoppable force.
(INAUDIBLE) is the assistant abbot at the Golden Buddha temple and has traveled around a dozen times to the club at the request of the Thai owners. Recently, he gave this unbeatable fabric to the team, which is said to bring good karma.
He recalls how the players were somewhat taken aback by their meeting with the monks
PHRA PROMMANGKALACHAN, MONK, GOLDEN BUDDHA TEMPLE (through translator): Well, they're from different regions. They're not Buddhists and therefore during our first meeting they were a bit indifferent. But Mr. Vichai, he wanted blessings for the club and each individual player.
MACFARLANE (voice-over): The site of monks at the King Power Stadium in a season where Leicester City have roared from the bottom to the very top of the Premier League has drawn much attention to the club and their unconventional Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
PROMMANGKALACHAN (through translator): He never intended to change the way a Premier league club was run. All he wanted was for his team to be confident. But Mr. Vichai is a good Buddhist and wherever he goes, he never forgets about Thailand.
MACFARLANE (voice-over): And that's something the Thai people here have taken to their hearts, many of them switching from the traditional giants like Manchester United and Liverpool to follow the fairy tale, meaning retailers have completely sold out of the Leicester King Power blue shirts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It means a lot for us. This is the first time that a team owned by Thai people could be the champion. And I think they are going to win. I look at us. We have a great monk. We have monks who bless them.
MACFARLANE (voice-over): If karma takes Leicester City all the way to the Premier League title, one wonders what it will do next season when the Foxes step up to take their place among Europe's elite in the Champions League.
The answer to that lies in the heart of the temple.
PROMMANGKALACHAN (through translator): It's up to them. If they continue to uphold the law of karma, it will be their power. If they still have consciousness and good intention and determination to do good deeds, the power will remain with them forever.
MACFARLANE (voice-over): Christina Macfarlane, CNN, Bangkok.
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ALLEN: What a fantastic sports story.
Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. I'll be right back with our top stories and then it's "POLITICAL MANN."
