One miner was killed while six others sustained injuries after a gold mine collapsed in a village in West Pokot County.
Police said the incident happened on Saturday in Kambi Karaya within Sarmach Sublocation.
The victims were buried alive before the six were rescued. One body was later retrieved from the rubble, police said.
West Pokot County police commander Issa Mohamud said the body was moved to Kapenguria Hospital morgue pending identification and postmortem.
He said the miners are endangering their lives by venturing into the sites with no protection gear.
Mohamud said they have called for a consultative meeting to discuss the issue.
“It is not the first time such a tragedy is happening in these sites and that is why we need to discuss how it can be tamed,” he said.
In March 2024, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki banned mining of gold in major sites over safety issues.
He said small illegal artisanal mining sites in the area posed grave public safety risks resulting in deaths when mine shafts cave in.
The directive by Kindiki which also banned unlicenced commercial mining, came just a week after two people died following another collapse.
“To ensure regularised artisanal mining that meets public safety and environmental standards, the Government has banned all artisanal mining activities as well as unlicenced commercial mining,” he said.
The area is among those with gold deposits and hence attracts residents who venture there to make a living.
Similar incidents have also been reported in other parts of the country including in Lirhembe village, Ikolomani in Kakamega County and another in Manyatta village, Vihiga county.
Miners have put their lives at risk in search of gold, especially in Pokot.
In Pokot, the most affected areas are around River Sukut between Tangasia and Kapsangar locations where young boys drop out of school and resort to mining.
Some of these accidents have been attributed to the unsafe use of heavy machines to crush stones in artisanal activities, overlooking the environmental impact.
According to officials, the machineries make the sites weak and unsafe for the miners.
To deal with some of these challenges, the government has also directed that those involved in mining activities to stop operations.
This is to allow for the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to conduct an environmental impact assessment and give the ecological guidelines before mining operations can resume.
