Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Rongo Town.

THREE gold miners died when walls of a gold pit collapsed killing them instantly leaving the fourth man hospitalized with serious injuries.

The four, all from one family, met their fate last Friday at Kanyasrega village, Sakwa North Location, Awendo district within Migori County.

The death comes only a week after a team of the Parliamentary Committee on Land and Natural Resources led by Chairman Hon Mutava Musyimi made an inspection tour of the region and issue a stern warning on the safety of the minefields.

The team visited Nyatike Constituency in the neighboring Nyatike district and urged relevant government authorities to take the issue of mining and safety of the miners seriously.

More deaths occasioned by laxity in mining rules have been experienced in Nyatike and Rongo districts where over ten people have so far died recently.

The team visited the region at the invitation of the Nyatike MP Edick Omondi Anyanga who has persistently blamed the government for neglecting the miners, and for failing to realize and recognize the economic significance of the country’s minerals.

The MP has called on the government to ensure that those working in the quarries are well protected from work hazards.

The Nyatike has also scathingly criticized the government for not properly auditing the movement of gold produce by foreign miners who could be engaged in suspicious dealing such as siphoning and shipping gold out of the country through “Panya” roost via the neighboring countries to defeat taxation by the Kenya Revenue Authority {KRA}.

The MP has also decried the peanut payment by foreign investors to the mine diggers who are made to sweat it out I the burning heat under unsafe conditions.

In the latest incident the local deputy OCPD James Mwangi confirmed that the four had just entered the mines pit at Kanyasrega village near Ranen SDA Mission in Sakwa North Location.

There are two mining pits in the area both of them were abandoned by the old Kitere Gold Mines Ltd which closed its mining activities in the area in the early 1962 shortly before independence in 1963.Theminers had avoided th second pit because it was filled by water following heavy downpour in the region in the rent past.

The names of the victims were given as Ogaja Gony, Omondi Owiti an Okungu. The fourth person who was rescued in a critical condition and rushed o Hospital was given as Isaiyah Agoro.

The police said the four had just entered the pit in the morning when the walls caved in on them leaving suffocated underground and killing instantly.

The villagers managed to rescue one of the miners and brought him to the surface alive, but in a critical condition and rushed to the hospital. Further preliminary investigation reveals that the walls of the mine pit were weakened by the heavy rains pounding the area.

According to the police, the rescue team was not only inadequate, but that they were also poorly equipped, and it took the whole day before the rescuers could retrieve the bodies from the mining pit due to lack of equipment such as heavy earth moving machines.

The Deputy police boss called on the locals to refrain from prospecting gold especially during this time when it is raining.

He revealed that he police team is currently working with the local council to block the caves and ensure that no mining operations take place to help protect lives.

He said apart from the caving by the miners have also led to many deaths especially of the passersby and animals.

The regions were the beehives of mining activities from as early a 1930s during the “Big Gold Rush” when foreign multinational companies invaded the region and establish full fledged gold mines at Masara, Macalder and Kitere.

The mining activities had also extended into Kehancha in the neighboring Kuria district and also at Lolgrien in the neighboring Trans-Mara district near the Maasai Mara game Reserves.

But all of a sudden, the gold mines were abandoned with some of the pits left uncovered in the early 1960s as the foreign miners dashed home when the country approached its final journey to political independence in 1963.

The foreigners left in huff owing to fears that politics in Kenya would turn into chaotic situation similar to those witnessed in the Congo in 1960.

Ends