Turkana
Thursday April 18,2024
KNA by Peter Gitonga
A joint operation team comprising of Kenya Police and the County’s Law Enforcement have acted swiftly to close one of the artisanal mining sites indefinitely and arrested the owner.
The team was led by the Officer Commanding Kakuma Station Vincent Ekiru Kamais and the Director of Enforcement Inspectorate, Julius Wasama.
At the mining site, the team found 16 youth, including four minors, who had been regular workers at the site, holed up in the operation site.
The County Chief Officer for the Department of Minerals Resources Triza Amoni led her technical team to the site, following concerns raised by the members of Naduat community over the consistent blasting operations, non-compliance of the mining requirements and safety standards of the workers.
According to Amoni, an artisanal miner John Korobe has on several occasions contravened the Mining Act 2016 regulations 95(3) that provides; a person shall not engage in artisanal mining operations unless the person has been granted an artisanal mining permit under this Act.
At the same time, 98 (2), states that the holder of an artisanal permit shall observe good mining practices, health and safety rules and pay due regard to the protection of the environment.
After further probe at the site, the CCO said the miner was found non-compliant of the mining modalities and requirements.
She highlighted the lack of consent letter from local administration, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Certificate, letter of no objections from the Department of Mineral Resources, county revenue and national mining permits.
The Director of Mineral Resources Stanley Loter said that the Directorate has written five warning letters to the miners in Naduat to stop the illegal practices in the site.
He further said they have continuously carried out community sensitisation meetings to create awareness to the miners on the legal practices accepted in the mining industry.
Despite all the efforts done to help miners carry out their mining business without interference, Korobe has negligently ignored the adherence to the minimum requirements.
Chief Amoni reiterated that the site would only be opened after the miner has satisfactorily complied with the statutory requirements.
The suspected miner was arrested Tuesday and placed in custody in Kakuma Police Station, awaiting to be arraigned to court.
Courtesy; KNA
