By Frank Kamuntu
Tragedy has hit Rongo, Migori in Kenya after a gold mine collapsed in Kanga killing five of people.
Two died while receiving treatment at the Migori County Referral Hospital.
The remainig three died at the scene.
The fatallities are among 12 miners who had been trapped alive after the tragedy on the dawn of Tuesday, July 9.
Rongo deputy county commissioner John Otenga confirmed the incident, calling on miners to be cautious with the unsafe landscape especially in the prevalent rainy season.
“My plea to local miners is that they take caution and avoid going down the mines whenever they don’t have safety gadgets and also avoid unlicensed and unsafe mines,” said Otenga.
Earlier, the authorities in Rongo confirmed that the shaft collapsed from its entrance.
“Today we got a report of an accident at this mine where 18 people were buried alive, but we have managed to rescue six people in critical condition, and 12 are still trapped,” a police officer said.
Rescue mission had to be stopped with the miners remaing trapped in there for hours waiting for experts from the county government.
“As of now, we have no fatalities, but we need to speed up the rescue mission since the mine is deep and those trapped might run out of oxygen,” he added.
The residents decried the supposed tardiness on the side of county rescuers who seemed not to have treated the tragedy with urgency.
“The rescue mission is taking longer than expected because the mine is 750 feet deep, and we still don’t have experts to help,” said Caleb Onyango, a local rescuer.
The mine is approximated to be about 750 feet deep.
Meanwhile, officers from the National Environment Managment Authority (NEMA) and county vowed to crack down on unlicensed and unsafe mines in the region to avoid more calamities in the future.
Nyanza has in the recent past garnered significant attention due to the recurring incidents of gold miners being fatally trapped underground when shaft walls collapse.
In March 2024, two people lost their lives inside a gold mine where a rock debris fell on them in Migori.
The miners were panning for gold when rock debris fell from the mine’s wall, killing them and injuring four others.
Later in April, two other miners were killed in Siaya county’s Abwanda village after a gold mining shaft caved in.
