We were asleep when rescuers came – gold mine survivors

There was nothing they could do to escape, so they huddled together in a cold cramped hallow in the cave, hoped, prayed and waited. 

Two things were clear: Either they were waiting for their time to die or the hour when their rescuers would find them.

Deeper, below them, was a pool of filthy salty water. Around them was the pitch dark, uneven surface with colder droplets of water – which formed the walls of cave, that was threatening to squeeze the life out of them.

That's what it was like for six days trapped in a cave of Bimbo gold mine in Bondo, Siaya county.

“I had been working at the mine for three days, until December 2 when we helplessly saw the walls of a section of the mine cave-in.

"I am over joyous and thankful to God. We were dead but now we are alive,” Philip Joel Ogutu, 21, from Kosele in Homa Bay said.

He added, “If not for God we would have died. It is true this job gives us money but it is very risky.

"I was praying in the cave. I knew that I was not going to die because of hunger. God (Jesus) fasted for 40 days but never died.”

Ogutu said they had no food and only survived on salty water until they were rescued.

Survivor Jacob Onyango recalled they depended on crickets to guess what time it was.

“There were crickets in that cave. The crickets would chirp mostly in the mornings. We depended on them to approximate what time it was,” he said.

“We competed for oxygen in that cave. We were just lucky there was a pipe in the hole which conveyed some oxygen to us. It is the same pipe that we depended on to communicate with our rescuers. "

Initially, the pipe was being used to pump water out of the caves. Its end was inside when the tragedy occurred.

Onyango recalls that their headlamps had gone off and were deep asleep when rescuers reached them.

“We were asleep when our colleagues reached where we were. We were scared when we heard people waking us up. We were very happy to see our colleagues. It is then that we knew we were alive.”

The 23-year-old now calls on the government to provide young people with work alternatives to dangerous gold mines. Then they won't risk their lives every day.

“Serikali itupatie kazi (Let the government give us jobs),” Onyango said. The other survivors agreed.

Speaking to the press, Onyango recalled that he had been a victim at another site where a mine caved in in 2018, just a year after he ventured into mining.

Victor Otieno, 19, who was exhausted, could only recall they were on their normal duty of digging up the cave in pursuit of gold, when all hell broke loose. 

Siaya county disaster management officer George Aola expressed happiness on the rescue of the three miners. He requested commentators not to criticise them severely for they are doing a good work. 

“We are very optimistic that we are going to receive the one person remaining alive. We are hopeful to receive him by end of today,” he said.

Further, he thanked “locals who knew the geology of the place” and who helped them locate the survivors.

(Edited by V. Graham)