Government suspends stone quarrying in Mandera East over insecurity

Quarrying in Mandera East Sub-County has been suspended due to insecurity.

Mandera East Deputy County Commissioner Elvis Korir said the ban follows the assessment of the security in the area.

“We have decided to suspend quarrying activities especially in Mandera East on security reasons but once we reorganise our apparatus the stone miners will resume work,” Mr Korir told the Nation.

He said all the Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) in Mandera East were being vetted for effective surveillance of the stone quarries.

“We are vetting afresh all the reservists so that we can deploy them in the three locations with the highest stone mining activities within Mandera East and this will boost our tactics of fighting terror,” said Mr. Korir.

The three locations with the highest quarry activities are Khalalio, Neboi and Koromey.

Mr Korir said there are more than 15 stone quarries in Mandera East alone.

AL-SHABAAB ATTACK

The government’s decision comes at a time when the stone miners have become Al-Shabaab targets with the latest attack on July 7, 2015 claiming 14 lives.

Eleven other people were injured in the attack.

On December 2, 2014, 36 miners were killed in cold blood by suspected Al-Shabaab militants as they slept in makeshift tents at Koromey.

The incident prompted the government to close down all the stone quarries along the Kenya-Somalia border.

The miners were ordered never to spend nights in the quarries but instead rent houses in Mandera Town.

Mr Charles Kamau, a stone miner, told the Nation that most of his colleagues have left Mandera due to “complicated working conditions” which he blamed on the government.

TOUGH CONDITIONS

“We have worked in these quarries for long but the government has become very unfriendly with officers coming up with tough conditions.

“On the other hand Al-Shabaab are after our lives and this has forced most of us to go back home,” said Mr Kamau.

He said most miners were attracted by the “good returns” in Mandera compared to his home county of Nyeri.

The construction industry in Mandera is expected to suffer most as the quarries close.

Mr Korir, however, said the activities will resume after streamlining of the security system and denied claims that it was a government tactic of getting non-locals out of Mandera after a successful transfer of non-local teachers.