Grief Hits Kajiado County After Another Quarry Tragedy

People viewing the area where two children drowned in Mbirrikanyi village on Saturday, December 22, 2018. /KURGAT MARINDANY

A family was on Saturday thrown into mourning after two of their children, aged 5 and 6 years, drowned in a quarry at Birrika village, Kajiado county.

The two boys had taken their goats to drink water at the quarry and later started playing around it before slipping to their death.

Kiserian police boss Lucy Karimi said investigations have begun to establish any possible foul play.

“We are not taking any chance on the matter. We also want to know if the owner of the quarry took safety precautions to avoid such deaths.”

Karimi said the bodies were moved to Nairobi City Mortuary awaiting postmortem by a government pathologist.

Kajiado Senator Philip Mpaayei visited the bereaved family of Mzee ole Koshoi on Sunday.

Workers at a quarry. /FILE

While there, he managed to stop irate demonstrators who wanted to burn down machines belonging to the owner of the quarry.

“I told them damaging property belonging to the quarry owner cannot bring the children back to life. What I want to be done is to make the quarry owner take responsibility for failing to fence off the property,” Mpaayei said.

The Senator also took issue with the police for taking long in retrieving the bodies and securing the scene where the children drowned.

“The police came after workers at the quarry had already removed the bodies.”

He further claimed the workers attempted to fill up the dam using rocks and earth after the incident “with an aim of covering up evidence.”

Quarry drownings have been commonplace lately, the last to be reported being in Kisumu where two siblings died after an attempt to swim in Kanyakwar dam.

Days before then, a KDF soldier was killed after he attempted to save his two children that had fallen in a dam at a KDF facility in Thika. The kids died as well.

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