Leaders and residents of Kagoto village in Bahati have demanded closure of a quarry after a dynamite blast destroyed several houses on Saturday.
Police had a difficult time calming the angry residents who protested for several hours against the explosion and quarry operations on Saturday.
“There has been massive destruction of houses, it is unfortunate. We will hold a meeting of all stakeholders on Monday (yesterday) to seek a lasting solution,” Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri said.
He assured residents the county had talked to the management of Karsan Ramji and Sons Civil Engineering and Construction Company to compensate residents for the damages.
The MP agreed that the quarry poses a danger to the residents and said the solution can only be “that the nearby residents be fully compensated and relocated or the quarry be closed.”He called on leaders not to politicise the matter.
The company’s manager Maryline Mbaya apologised to the residents and assured them of compensation.
Bahati OCPD Edward Wafula said there were no injuries but several houses were destroyed.
“We are yet to have the exact figure of the houses damaged. We ask the residents to be calm as a lasting solution is sought,” the police boss said.
The leaders also asked the county to stop collecting levies from trucks ferrying stones from quarries.
Led by Ngunjiri, the leaders said the county has erected barriers in every quarry, preventing the residents from benefiting from levies collected.
“We want the county to erect barriers at borders and not at every quarry. We also want Bahati residents to benefit from the levies collected from projects in the area,” Ngunjiri said.
The owners of lorries transporting stones from the quarries said the county collects levies from them daily. “So we wonder why the administration has not fixed these important roads and given back to society,” truck owner Peter Kamaru said.
TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN?
Four years ago a student from Kagoto primary school was killed after a stone from a nearby quarry hit him on the head.
A month after the Solai Dam tragedy, veteran politician posted on Facebook, “Another tragedy is waiting to happen at Kagoto and Heshima in Nakuru where people have built houses on the side of Menengai Hill while two companies are blasting huge rocks from the mountain to make gravel for sale without caring that each blast is causing tremors that shake houses and induce landslides... ”
Resident Mary Muthoni said, “It [dynamite explosions] is often much more powerful, scary, unsettling and completely disrupts your concentration. It spooks our kids and visitors. I usually curse, then try to compose myself and get back to work.”