Nema has ordered the immediate closure of quarries in Murang’a following the dangers posed by the ongoing rains. The environmental official tasked the chiefs to enforce the order ensuring that all the operations in all quarry mines are brought to a halt.
In a circular dated April 25, Nema County director Ms Sarah Waruo issued an advisory notice on the possible collapse of the quarry mines.
“NEMA notifies that Murang’a County has several quarries, for stones, sand as well as clay. The quarries are either machine-worked or artisanal, worked manually by artisanal miners. The continued heavy rainfall is a high risk of quarries collapsing due to the prevailing wet conditions,” read part of the circular.
As Nema bans mining, the old quarry mines spread in all the nine sub-counties are flooded with locals calling for their draining to save them from mosquito bites.
In the region, most of the ground-floor residential houses located near the waterways have been vacated, after most of the buildings were submerged in water.
Peter Njaramba Maina , a tenant in one of the buildings, said he was forced to relocate his family from a three-bedroom rental house after it was submerged in water from Murare stream.
Three weeks ago, a quarry mine in Njogu ini area collapsed following a heavy downpour. Already, landslides have occurred causing deaths of six people among them three children in Kiganjo village, Mathioya. Several roads have been destroyed leading to the closure of the sections along Murang’a Kiria ini road.