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Mining Permanent Secretary Elijah Mwangi has said the government intends to rehabilitate all the abandoned quarries in the county.

Mwangi said the abandoned quarries have been death traps for the members of the public and thus the move to have them rehabilitated and put into other use.

Speaking during a visit to Murang’a county, the PS said officers from the ministry will be touring all the mining sites and identify all the potentially risky sites.

He said the majority of the miners leave the quarries open exposing those living nearby to risks of falling into the pits and in some instances they become criminals’ dens.

His remarks come days after bodies were found dumped in a quarry that is now used as a dumpsite in Kware area in Nairobi. 

“We will be collecting all the details for the abandoned quarries to know what was being mined there and for how long so that we can know the necessary action to take,” said the PS.

Abandoned quarries

He added that cases of children falling into the abandoned quarries and thus the need to have them fences to avert such incidents.

“We can have some converted into dams, others as fish ponds and even have them refilled and we have trees planted there for conservation purposes,” he remarked.

Mwangi further said the ministry is out to enforce new regulations to ensure all the miners obtain the operating licenses for their activities.

The licensing he said will help the government in monitoring the mining activities and those who will fail to observe the set guidelines will have their permits revoked.

 Under the regulations, the miners will also be required to fill up the quarries after extracting the materials.

“Every miner will have the responsibility of ensuring they refill the quarry once they are done extracting their materials,” he added.

He also urged the miners to observe the safety guidelines issued by the government noting that some of the deaths reported at the mines can be avoided.