It’s the same old script in Kenya: someone dies, the cameras roll, and a politician suddenly discovers a “crisis” that has been sitting in plain sight for years. This time, it’s Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o acting shocked that abandoned quarries are actually death traps. It took the drowning of four brothers, four children from one family, for the county government to realize that leaving giant, water-filled holes in the ground might be a bad idea.

The Governor has now suspended all mining and quarrying activities. It’s a classic reactionary move. If you didn’t have “valid legal approvals” before, why were you operating? The answer is simple: because nobody cared until there were bodies to count. We live in a country where regulation is a suggestion until it becomes a PR nightmare.

Now, we’re being promised a “task force.” In Nairobi, we know exactly what that means. It means more meetings, more per diems, and more tea and mandazi while the actual problem remains unaddressed. They say they’ll work with NEMA, the same NEMA that’s famous for letting buildings go up on riparian land until they collapse. To think that this “comprehensive audit” will actually change anything is peak delusion.

While the Governor talks about “restoration plans” and “firm legal action,” the reality on the ground is different. Those who have the money to bribe the task force will be back to digging by next week. The small-scale harvesters, the ones actually trying to survive, will be the only ones feeling the weight of this ban. It’s a cycle of exploitation.

We see brilliance in this country, like Joseph Mutati, the Mwingi crypto genius who built Flitaa while others were busy faking success, but the government only knows how to build barriers or react to disasters. They don’t build systems that protect the vulnerable; they build committees to explain why they failed.

These boys weren’t just “swimming.” They were playing in a graveyard that the county government allowed to exist. Calling this an “unacceptable tragedy” now is an insult. It was acceptable to the authorities every single day that those quarries sat open and unregulated.

Don’t be fooled by the “firm legal action” talk. Once the headlines fade and the funeral flowers wither, the task force will disappear, the “ban” will be quietly lifted for the right price, and we’ll just be waiting for the next hole to fill with rainwater and regret. This isn’t governance; it’s damage control.