A glum mood hit Kwa Murogi village in the outskirts of Nakuru town on Thursday evening after a school boy drowned in a flooded quarry.
The boy, a standard six pupil at Hyrax Primary School was identified as Master Julius Muhoro who was swimming with four other boys in the quarry.
Area sub-chief Moses Karanja said the abandoned quarry, which is a favourite playing ground for local children, has so far claimed several lives in the village.
Karanja said the boy’s body was retrieved from the quarry by residents soon after the other children raised an alarm. Police from Lanet Police station took the body to Nakuru General Hospital mortuary.
The sub chief said that the boy’s parents who are business people at the local Free Area business centre were alerted before rushing to the scene.
“The five boys were grazing sheep near the flooded quarry and ventured into swimming before one of them drowned. This place has claimed several lives here and something needs to be done about it,’’ said the sub chief.
He said that early last year, a woman who was fetching water from the quarry was mauled by a hippo that had strayed from the park.
Karanja added that the same spot was the scene of a suicide incident a few months ago, when a local small scale businessman out the influence of alcohol dived into the flooded quarry after he had a domestic dispute with his wife.
The quarry flooded after a heavy down pour the previous day.