3 Golden Africa Factory Workers Who Died Were Forced to Clean Soak Pit, Colleagues Say

• Three Golden Africa staffers died on Friday, December 23, while trying to rescue their colleague who was cleaning a soak pit therein
• According to sources, the worker had been asked to clean the well without putting on the safety gear
• Police have since launched their investigations into the circumstances around which the three died

It now emerges that one of the three workers who died inside the Golden Africa factory was forced to clean the cesspit.

The trio, Stephen Okoth, Kelong Mathew Kiprotich and James Wanjala reportedly suffocated while cleaning the plant’s septic tank which had a sludge.

In the Friday, December 23, incident, it is reported that Okoth entered the septic first but ran out of air and before raising an alarm.

No safety gear

His two colleagues, immediately went in to assist him. Unfortunately, they ran out of oxygen too and they all died.

Athi River Sub-County Police Commander Mary Njoki said the three were finalising their shifts so that they could break for the Christmas festivities.

The trio’s colleagues who spoke on condition of anonymity said the first fatality was not given safety gear when he was asked to clean the well which had sludge in it.

Neither did he have the equipment to make the work easier.

His two colleagues would also meet their end in the process of rescuing him.

“The company did not provide them with the needed equipment. Ideally, the sludge should be opened at least 24 hours before anyone is allowed in,”

“This was a hurried process. Neither permission from the internal safety department was sought, nor the equipment provided. They were forced to go in without the necessary equipment partly because the company was closing for festivities the very day and would resume operations on January 5, 2023,” they told Nation.

Their bodies were taken to Machakos County Referral Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.

Golden Africa Kenya Limited manufactures Avena and Pika cooking oils and Zenta and Super Saba bar soaps, among other products.

Police have since launched their investigations the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Man dies inside factory boiler

Similarly, there was recently a moment of pain and tears after the family of a Siaya man who died in a steel factory in Thika were handed his ashes for burial.

Thirty-four-year-old Caleb Otieno died horridly after he was boiled to death in the factory’s boiler on Friday, March 25.

The deceased was reduced to ashes with only pieces of his teeth being retrieved from the scene.

On Monday, March 28, the distraught family could not conceal its pain while collecting its kin’s ashes and other parts of his body that were found in the boiler where he met his death.

The family said they would put the ashes and the other particles in a coffin before burying them.

The family called out the steel factory for not having safety measures for its workers, noting that it was the reason Otieno died.

Source: TUKO.co.ke