This archive report was first published on 9 June 2020.
Published on June 9, 2020, a year ago, residents of Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet counties in Rift Valley are up in arms over the increasing number of deaths in abandoned quarries.
Five people have died in the two counties after plunging into the quarries, with two sets of brothers drowning in separate borrow pits that swelled after heavy rains pounded the region in a span of three days last month.
Angry locals are accusing the state of watching as road contractors abandon quarries without covering them after excavation of murram, thereby exposing them to danger.
Area Chief Benjamin Chelulei said the quarry pit was supposed to be filled by a Chinese contractor after tarmacking Soy-Kabenes road but that has not been done after more than a year.
“We held a stakeholder meeting where it was agreed that contractors ought to refill quarries after extracting murram but the agreements have not been honoured,” Mr Chelulei said.
Uasin Gishu County Commissioner Abdirisack Jaldesa has asked the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) to carry out an audit of all quarry pits and establish why road construction companies failed to cover them.
