A miner died after he drowned in a gold mining site in Khayega, Kakamega County.
Police said one Oscar Shivachi, 30 died in a goldmine site in an incident on Saturday February 15.
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 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.
The machineries make the sites weak and unsafe for the miners, according to officials.
Others say lack of protective gears for the miners when they venture in there expose 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.
Legal artisanal and small-scale mining contributed at least Sh30 billion to the economy in 2023, representing over half of the country’s mining output.
To deal with some of these challenges, the government has also directed those involved in mining activities to stop operations for the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to conduct an environmental impact assessment to give the ecological guidelines before mining operations can resume.
Apart from Kakamega, there are gold deposits in Homabay, Vihiga, Migori, West Pokot, Moyale in Marsabit, Isiolo, Transmara and Nandi.
