3 die as gold mine collapses in Vihiga
By Enock Amukhale, December 6, 2025Three people have died at Maganyi village in Sabatia sub-county, Vihiga County, while prospecting for gold.
The three who earn a living through gold digging met their death after their mine tunnels collapsed.
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The accident occurred when the underground shaft collapsed and trapped the three miners.
Efforts by the villagers to rescue them alive from the collapsed tunnels were fruitless.
The villagers lacked an excavator to dig deep into the tunnel where the three had been trapped.
The villagers said the three died of suffocation because inside the mines, there was not enough oxygen.
Vihiga residents have blamed the county government of Vihiga and the national government for poor and slow emergency response, where villagers struggled in vain to rescue those who had been trapped in the goldmine rubble.
The villagers managed to retrieve the three bodies, and they have been taken to Vihiga County Referral Hospital mortuary.
“We managed to retrieve the bodies of the three boys who were trapped in the gold mine on Saturday, December 7. The three died of suffocation, and the weight of soil after their mine tunnels collapsed,” grief-stricken villagers said.
The villagers also accused the Vihiga county government of lacking an emergency response to respond to such disasters.
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Vihiga County has witnessed several cases of young boys dying in the gold mines.
Early last year, three people lost their lives after their gold mine tunnels collapsed at the Chambiti Manyatta area in Vihiga sub-county.
Crackdown on illegal miners
These disasters happen despite Vihiga senator Godfrey Osotsi calling on the national government to crack down on all unlicensed mining activities in Vihiga county to help stop unnecessary accidents being witnessed in the unprotected gold mines.
Senator Osotsi blames the Ministry of Mining for laxity in dealing with unlicensed gold mining in the country.
“There is a need to crack down on all unlicensed mining activities to forestall a repeat of such incidents in the future,” Osotsi said.
He added, “I have in the past raised an alarm over unlicensed mining activities in Vihiga County from the Ministry of Petroleum, Mining and Blue Economy, and even written to the County Commissioner raising the red flag over illegal mining activities.”
The Vihiga senator said the perpetrators of the unlicensed mining activities are not observing proper safety measures and regulations, leading to deaths, land degradation, and weakening of the soil.
“I want to challenge the authorities in Vihiga, including the County Government, to undertake a crackdown in the mining areas to help weed out unlicensed miners,” he said.
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He said authorities should move with speed and help equip people who are carrying out artisanal mining activities so as not to disrupt their livelihoods.
He said the authorities should also train and sensitise the artisanal miners on safety and necessary regulations so as to enable them to operate with keenness and avert any further loss of lives and injuries in the future.
“I want to call on all miners to observe safety regulations during mining activities that have been heightened in the county, as this is not the first incident,” he urged.