Two die in West Pokot after suffocating inside borehole

Two people died after suffocating in a borehole in Chepareria, West Pokot County on Thursday afternoon. [File, Standard]

Two people died after suffocating in a borehole in Chepareria, West Pokot County on Thursday afternoon.

One of the victims fell into the death trap while trying to rescue the other victim, who had been contracted to remove mud from the 60-feet borehole.

Evans Krop, 35, and James Krop lost their lives after suffocating in the borehole.

Kipkomo sub-county commander Adano Abukula said Evans had contracted James to clean the borehole since it had not been used after it was dug.

He said James descended into the borehole to clean it but unfortunately ran out of oxygen as he screamed for help.

Adano said Evans who is a teacher decided to rescue his worker, but unfortunately, he was also trapped inside the borehole.

“Police visited the scene and through the assistance of members of the public they managed to retrieve the bodies from the borehole,” he said.

Adano added that the incident happened a kilometre away from Chepareria police station.

“The bodies have been positively identified by relatives and will be taken to Kapenguria referral hospital mortuary awaiting postmortem,” he said.

He said three incidents of people dying inside the borehole have occurred within a span of one year within Chepareria township.

“In the first and the second incidents that happened in June and December last year, we lost two lives. Unfortunately, in today's incident we have lost two lives,” he said.

Kipkomo sub-county administrator Samuel Kales said James, who is the borehole digger was going to install a water pumping machine inside the borehole.

“The one on top threw a rope to the victim so that he could pull him out, but while trying to rescue him he could not manage. He could no longer hold onto the rope, that’s when he fell back in the borehole,” he said.

Kales added that Evans, who teaches at Kapsowar Primary in Elgeyo Marakwet, arrived home on Wednesday at his rental houses in Chepareria to install the water pumping machine to help his tenants get water.