A eight-year-old boy drowned in a quarry in Bumula, Bungoma county, while playing with his friends on Monday.
Emmanuel Musungu and the others had been looking for firewood when the incident took place a few metres from their home in
Lunakwe village.
The quarry was dug by GAB Company employees who had been working on Musikoma-Mungachi road.
It was one of many in the area that filled with water after heavy rains.
Lilian Musungu, the boy's mother, said she was away when he drowned.
"I was in the market when a relative told me my child had died."
Her husband
Peter Musungu said: "I am in a lot of pain. I had hoped he would become a great person and help us in our old age
after finishing school and getting a god job."
Musungu blamed the company, saying dug out parts are left unattended, putting children at high risk especially during the holidays.
"We want them to seal these quarries since they have been attracting children who go to swim in them," he said.
South Bukusu area chief Julius Barasa said residents pulled the body out of the quarry.
He asked GAB managers to secure the quarries to prevent injuries and deaths.
Police took the body of the class one pupil of Nandingwa Primary School to Bungoma County Referral Hospital mortuary.
