The mining Department through the Migori County artisanal mining committees will soon roll out the issuance of mining permits to artisan miners to empower their socio-economic development in the county.
Migori Regional Director for Mining Joseph Boiwo said that currently they have registered 25 mining cooperatives formed by artisan miners in the County awaiting to be issued with their permits to legalise their mining operations.
Mining in Migori is majorly done in Nyatike Sub County with Osiri Matanda; one of the largest mining sites in the county having more than 2,000 artisan miners. The Sub Counties of Kuria, Awendo, Rongo, Suna and Uriri are also partly involved with mining activities where the artisan miners are still the majority.
Boiwo who led a delegation of various agencies that included the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and local administration in visiting various mining sites and processing plants in the county said that mining permits will be given to registered cooperatives but not individual artisan miners. He disclosed that artisan miners in cooperatives will be given permits through the artisanal mining committees from the county level.
Boiwo elaborated that issuing mining permits to cooperatives will smoothen the mining operations in the county, contribute to revenue collection and ease the monitoring of mining activities in the region.
He also added that the permits issued to the cooperatives will provide benefits like market links, grants and mining training to the artisan miners.
The official emphasised that they will continue to close all illegal mining and processing plants in the County until compliance is met to protect the community interests.
“We want the community, the county and the national government to benefit from mining activities through revenue generation and royalties to boost the socio-economic agenda”, explained Boiwo.
The government-mining royalty-sharing formula discloses that the national government will take 70 percent of the resource generated, counties 20 percent and the community involved will get 10 percent.
The 20 percent allocation for the counties will be added to the budget allocation they get from the national government as provided by the County Additional Allocation Act of 2022.
In August 2023 The National government suspended all mining operations in Migori County and issued notices to machine operators and artisanal miners to acquire legal licenses.
The Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Salim Mvurya while visiting Migori County early last year, urged artisan miners to acquire proper documentation for their mining operations.
Mvurya said that artisan miners were the biggest contributors of income in the Kenyan mining sectors and promised that the government would decriminalise artisan miners to enable them to earn a decent livelihood to promote socio-economic development in the country.
By Geoffrey Makokha
