A secondary school teacher dies after suffocating in gold mine

A secondary school teacher reportedly died after suffocating inside a gold mining shaft at Abimbo village, in South Sakwa location, Siaya County.

Nicholas Odhiambo Ojenge, who was a teacher at Nyawita secondary school, is said to have lost his life while trying to rescue five other gold miners who had run out of oxygen.

Confirming the ill-fated incident, Bondo OCPD, Paul Kiarie said that the miners were on a gold excavation exercise when they their generators emitted carbon gas emitted.

“The men raised alarm,  prompting Mr. Ojenge, who has been working with them on part-time basis, to enter into the mining shaft to rescue them.” Said Kiarie.

“The teacher equally got choked and apparently passed on before his other colleagues came and successfully rescued the other five,” he added.

The police boss has also cautioned the miners against going into the gold mining shafts without proper equipment and protective gears, noting that it is also an offense to carry out such unlicensed prospecting of the mineral.

The five are currently undergoing treatment at Bondo sub-county hospital while the body of the teacher is lying at the same hospital’s mortuary awaiting autopsy.