At least five female artisanal miners were killed after a gold mine site collapsed at the Lumba gold mine in North Ramba, Rarieda sub-county, Siaya County.
Police said the incident happened on Monday, March 3, in the afternoon, as a group of women ventured into a tunnel for the minerals.
One woman was missing after the collapse, and efforts to bring her to safety
went to the night, police said.
She had
not been rescued by Tuesday morning, and officials fear she is dead amid
efforts to find her.
The tragedy came a week after three artisanal miners died in a similar gold mine accident in Rera village, Gem Wagai sub-county, raising concerns over safety in local mining operations in the region.
In Rarieda, the women, who were reportedly six in number, were performing routine mining tasks when the mining shaft suddenly caved in around 3:00 p.m., burying them alive, witnesses and police said.
After the collapse of the tunnel, locals rushed to their rescue and managed to retrieve five bodies hours later. Siaya County Police Commander Serah Koki confirmed the incident.
She said multi-agency teams had visited the scene as part of efforts to find the missing woman.
She said they are investigating the tragedy.
The bodies were moved to the Bondo sub-county hospital mortuary to await postmortem examination.
Such incidents are common in gold mining sites in the country amid calls for safety to address them.
The
mining sites are in Siaya, Migori, Kakamega, Moyale, West Pokot, Isiolo and
Taita Taveta, among others. All these sites have reported more than one
fatality, officials say.
This is
the latest incident to happen at mining sites amid calls for safety
measures to address the trend.
Hundreds
of people venture into the tunnels for gold and other minerals to earn a
living.
Officials, however, say the tunnels where the miners
venture are unsafe for their operations.
The officials say the miners use heavy
machines to crush stones in their artisanal activities, overlooking the
environmental impact.
As part of efforts to address the menace,
government officials have always directed those involved in mining activities
to stop operations for the National Environmental Management Authority to
conduct an environmental impact assessment to give the ecological guidelines
before mining operations can resume.
Nema officials were directed to carry out the
environmental impact assessment and give reports at the sites as part of
efforts to address the safety measures.
The gold miners are also ordered to seek
licenses from all the relevant government authorities before embarking on the
work.
They have been told to stop using heavy
machinery at the sites.
These machines make the sites weak and
unsafe for the miners.
The majority of the gold mining activities are
done by small and medium enterprise miners who have been exposed to unsafe
practices in the mining extraction processes.
Those engaged in extracting the precious mineral have always
defied government bans on mining, especially during rainy seasons, arguing that
it is the only activity in the region that enables them to put food on the
table.
Plans are underway to regulate the activities
at the sites.
