Tragedy Strikes As KCPE Candidate in Usonga Drowns in Water Pan

A pupil at Nyandheho Primary School in Usonga Ward of Alego-Usonga Constituency on Sunday drowned in a water pan.

The incident occurred when the curious youth in the company of friends attempted to take a dip in the newly constructed water pan that is constructed behind the school and known by the locals as Kayyawa.

The parent of the youth is a retired teacher who was identified as Mr. Ngesa.

An eyewitness report indicated that a nearby Pentecostal church was conducting baptism in the water pan when the curious youth wandered off to a secluded section of the pan where he drowned. Attempts by a friend to pull him out of the water almost ended in double tragedy.

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The incident has raised an outcry with residents calling for oversight from the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA).

Although Kayyawa is an old water pan the Sino-Hydro Company which is constructing the Nzoia Basin canal has left Usonga Ward full of ugly gaping holes after excavating murram in the locality.

“How does someone who does not have land promise to fill the hole wherever they dig out murram?”, asked a furious Mahanga villager, adding “They don’t have land that’s why they approach us to sell our portions for murram for road construction. So where are they going to get soil to fill these gaps they’ve left yawning allover Usonga?”

A member of the Usonga Youth Forum challenged the authorities to work together to bring sanity to the deteriorating situation.

“Those in charge of environment and by extension NEMA should move with speed to stop this form of excavation that is currently happening in Usonga ward. What the company known as Sino- Hydro Co. -‘Canal’ is doing has a big harm than any good to the people living in the environ! Very soon we’re going to have a lot of death cases in the location if the matter is not addressed with the emergency it deserves.”

The Member of County Assembly for Usonga is Sylvester Madialo, who is serving his second term.