I watched as mother lept to death in a pit with my sister

She watched horrified as her sister was tossed by her mother into a 300 feet water-filled quarry and when it was her turn, she told her mother she would jump in by herself. She pretended to and fled for dear life.

Priscilla Khaendi, eight, slipped from her mother’s hands and made away to her safety before she could be thrown into the killer quarry.
The little girl watched as her mother closed her eyes and leapt in the quarry with her younger sister wrapped on her back.

“I saw her throw Belinda (the young sister) in and as she closed her eyes and jumped into the quarry, I cried as I ran away,” she said.    

When she was woken up by her mother that fateful morning, that they were to set on a journey to their grandmother’s home, Priscilla was happy that she was going to reunite with her friends in the village — the moment most children who stay in urban centres long for.
Little did the girl know that a journey to the grandmother would take a different turn to the killer quarry.

“I was very happy when mum said that we were heading to our grandmother’s home, as usual, we always pay her visits when schools are on holidays,” said the girl, who is a student at Kapchumba Primary School in Uasin Gishu County.

She is familiar with the route to their grandmother’s home, but that day she became curious as they took a different route.

“I was surprised not only by the route that we took, but also by the fact that my mother did not carry any luggage apart from my younger sister, who was wrapped on her back,” she said.

It was alleged that the woman decided to commit suicide after a quarrel with her husband.

The girl said that there had been quarrels between her mother and the father and the two fought on Sunday morning — claims Mr Caleb Masengo admitted to.

“It is true that we have been having our domestic misunderstanding and even on Sunday we had some physical fight at our home,” he said.

When the Nation visited their home in Kambi Thomas, it was evident that the girl was still in shock.

The quarry has claimed many lives in the area, according to divers.

Mr Stanley Ng’an’ga of Mercy Divers Rescue Team, Eldoret, says that they have managed to retrieve 38 bodies from the quarry between 2006 and 2009.

Killer water point

“We don’t know of other bodies that go undiscovered,” Mr Ng’ang’a said.

According to Mr Ng’ang’a, the quarry was sold to Mugoya Construction Company in 1980, and the mining activities resulted in a deep valley that was later filled with water.

He says they measured the depth and found it was 300 feet deep and that it has never run dry.

Mr Nicholas Songok, who lives near the quarry, says he has seen many bodies retrieved from the water point.

“I have stayed here for long and the government has never done anything to enclose the killer quarry despite being aware that many lives have been taken by it,” Mr Songok says.

He claims that bodies of people killed elsewhere have also been dumped in the quarry, adding, the quarry also poses a risk to livestock and school children.