By Boniface Gikandi
A man was buried alive after a quarry collapsed as he sheltered during heavy rains.
Benson Gitau, 35, died on Friday night after huge stones crashed him at a quarry in Karigu-ini village in Murang’a South District.
The incident occurred shortly after 7.30pm.
Murang’a South OCPD Antony Onyango warned the public against seeking shelter in unsafe areas. The police retrieved the body.
At the same time, the flooded Saba Saba River partly submerged one lane of the main Murang’a-Nairobi road causing a traffic snarl-up between Kaharati and Karugia that lasted three hours on Friday night.
Many motorists feared their vehicles would be swept away by the raging waters.
Police officers from Maragua and Saba Saba helped to control the vehicles crossing the flooded section of the Kenol-Murang’a road.
Relocation
Murang’a County Governor Mwangi wa Iria has ordered the Provincial Administration to submit to his office details of families affected by rains in a bid to relocate them.
The Governor said the list would help to map out ways to help the families living in landslide prone areas to shift to safer grounds.
“We must help our brothers residing in landslide prone areas to avert danger,” he said while in the company of Kigumo legislator Jamleck Kamau.
In Kigumo ward, County Assembly member Caroline Wairimu Njoroge said many people continued experiencing landslides.
A number of farmers in Maragua constituency have reported losing their crops from the floods originating from Makuyu direction.
On Sunday night last week, five-year-old Esther Kamande was buried alive after a house the family was sleeping in was hit by a mudslide in Uithira Andu village in Kigumo District, Nyeri County.
