Police
said Silas Kirimi was attending to his general merchants shop when he collapsed
and died on Saturday evening.
The
cause of the death is yet to be established.
Police who visited the scene said the body was found lying on the
ground outside the premises and later moved to the Nairobi Funeral Home
awaiting postmortem.
Elsewhere
in Rhonda area, Nakuru, a 63-year-old man died after falling from a pole he was
fixing.
Witnesses
said Gregory Macharia was fixing an electric pole when he slid and fell on his
back sustaining injuries.
He
was rushed to Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital where he died while
undergoing treatment, police said.
In
Khayega, Kakamega County, a man identified as Oscar Shivachi, 30 died in a goldmine site incident.
Police
said five miners had descended into the 300-foot deep hold for mining of gold
when the incident happened.
It
was established five miners went into the shaft in Machilif village on Saturday
afternoon before the deceased drowned in water that had gathered therein.
The
other four miners were rescued from the shaft.
This
is the latest such incident to happen in the mining industry amid operations to
address the menace.
The
government has launched the Mining Police Unit to crack down on the sites that
are unsecure and unlicensed as part of efforts to address the deaths.
The Mining Police Unit is mandated to pursue
miners, prospectors, and dealers violating the industry law and regulations.
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 machinery makes the sites weak and unsafe for the miners.
Others say lack of protective gear for the
miners when they venture in there exposes them to the dangers.
They are supposed to carry among others oxygen
cylinders for use while scavenging for minerals.
The miners also at times use weak materials in
their mission, which collapse in the process leading to the deaths.
Most of the gold mine sites have been found to
be unsafe.
Some of them are also not licensed.
The government had in 2024 banned unlicenced commercial mining.
