High Alert: Villagers living in fear of explosives

Koigi wa Wamwere works in his radio station at Engashura area, a few kilometres north of Nakuru town, but it feels like he is in a war zone.?

This is because Mr Koigi, a veteran politician, lives near two stone quarries where daily mining explosions reverberate through his floor, rattle walls and scramble his brains.?

“I will be on-air doing a programme and the ba-ba-ba boom goes off,” he told the Standard Standard when we visited his studio near Kagoto Quarry along the Nakuru-Nyahururu Road. Koigi, says the blasting not only shakes his psyche but the entire foundation of his house.

Cracks on walls

He, like the rest of his neighbours, has cracks on the walls of his studio, which he says were caused by the tremors as a result of use of explosives at the quarry.

A blast can sound like a bomb detonating. It feels like an earthquake.

It makes dogs howl, babies cry and adults shudder. Bearing the brunt of the activities is the neighbouring Kagoto Primary School located less than 300 metres from the quarry.

Last week, an alarming explosion emanating from the quarry sent a tremor through Ms Linda Nyokabi’s house and the bodies of every person in it. ?“I would describe that one as medium high,” Nyokabi said.

She and her husband Mike Gitonga work from home. They operate a grocery shop facing the road.?

“It is often much more powerful. It is scary. It is unsettling. It completely disrupts your concentration. It spooks our kids, our visitors. I usually curse, then try to compose myself and get back to work,” she said.

Residents say that the quarry is using explosives, which put their lives at risk.?

Environmentalists too, have raised the red flag, warning of massive soil erosion and deadly landslides should the use of explosives continue.?

Last year, they converged at Kagoto Primary School to protest the use of explosives, saying they were making their houses shake.?“Our homes have become weak because of the impact of the explosives,” said Wanjiru Ndung’u, 33, a resident of Kagoto.?

Koigi recalls an incident in which a pupil at Kagoto Primary School died after a shrapnel fell on him, adding that at least two children have died after being hit by the flying objects.?

“I can confirm two deaths have occurred since I set up this studio in the year 2000,” he said.? Koigi, who is also a human rights activist says even after presenting grievances to relevant State agencies, little has changed.

Sought intervention

“I have even met the officials of National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) over this matter but little has been done,” says the one-time assistant minister for information and broadcasting.

Sam Njenga, a village elder, echoed Koigi’s sentiments: “We sought the intervention of the county government and they promised to take action but we are yet to see any official,” he said.?

Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri acknowledges that residents are living dangerously.? “This is a disaster waiting to happen. People here have even built houses on the slopes of the Menengai Crater, and they risk their lives in case of a landslide,” he said.?

He said most of the residents have converted their free-hold lands into quarries, a situation that is both worrying and risky.

“Others have left graves and houses to pursue quarrying activities, while others live dangerously in houses constructed inside abandoned quarries,” he added.

?The MP however revealed that a Bill has been drafted to address the issue of poor planning in counties.

(Nema) officials however gave conflicting reports, with others stating that residents are yet to launch complaints while others say the complaints have been constant since people started working in the quarry.

Lynnette Cheruiyot, acting Nakuru County Nema director said they have received several complaints from residents that the quarry management was using explosives.

“We have been receiving complaints from locals. However, we have established that they rarely use explosives,” she said. But according to residents, the use of explosives is rampant, and gets worse when it rains.

According to geologist Samuel Kamau, dangers of use of explosives in quarries in residential and commercial places has dire impact on buildings and generally on the environment. “Most of the houses neighbouring quarries where explosives are used are characterised by cracks, are prone to landslides whenever there are heavy rains while others risk flooding,” Mr Kamau said, adding that even water tanks in such areas crack.

He said there was need to rehabilitate quarries to avoid fatalities. Kamau said continuous mining of stones in the quarries neighbouring the Menengai Crater is more dangerous because such activities weaken the soil and can lead to landslides.

Freehold lands

Increased quarrying activities in freehold lands, according to county planners, often interfere with zoning and planning guidelines. They says such activitiesoften interfere with zoning of areas for purposes of gauging agricultural and economic potential as well as exploration in order to give room for expansion of some areas.

“As much as the locals have title deeds, there is little we can do in laying down the guidelines for proper land use or even zoning the lands because most locals do whatever they wish in their farms, including quarrying,” County Director of Lands and Physical Planning Robert Rutto said.

Physical planning, he added, helps in planning spaces for housing, road networks, street lighting among other social amenities. He said that cases of uncontrolled quarrying activities are rampant in Naivasha, Bahati, Nakuru town east and west sub-counties.

The owners of the two quarries said that they were operating legally and declined to comment further on the issue.

A Mr Shah, who owns one of the quarries denied he was using explosives to mine stones, saying he stopped following numerous complaints from locals.

“I have nothing to tell the media because we no longer use dynamite to mine stones,” Shah said. He declined to answer further questions.