Isebania-Migori-Kisii road project has been thrown into jinx after residents started digging up sections of the laid murram in search of Gold.
The ongoing construction of Sh. 8.5 bilion Isebania-Migori-Kisii which connects Kenya and Tanzania has been affected for the last three days at Rongo town after residents started to scramble for rock collections in search of the precious gold ores.
The gold deposits were discovered at Komire area in Awendo Sub County by the Chinese firm while outsourcing murram for the road under construction.
The Komire evacuation site which is about 30 kilometers from Rongo town has seen a beehive of activities from both Awendo and Rongo town residents rushing to collect the rocks in search of gold ores.
The firm has been hiring and leasing out farms for the rocks and murram along Kanga, Kitere, Komire, Kopuodho and Ranen areas which have been used for gold mining for decades.
Molvine Achieng, a miner at Rongo town said that the heavy machines and earth movers have made their work easy by unearthing the gold owed to the surface.
She said for the past two months miners and locals have been following the firm’s boulders and machines picking the rocks in search of the gold ores.
“I have already sold the gold that I collected at Komire evacuation site worth Sh 30,000 and I will continue camping here to generate more,” affirmed Achieng.
Peter Opondo, another miner at Rongo said that for the past three days the locals have invaded Rongo town digging up and scooping the sections of the laid murram road in search of the precious gold ow ores.
The gold rush has created a buzz in the busy Rongo town as residents armed with buckets, jembes and other digging materials in readiness to scoop up rocks and muram immediately after they are placed on the road.
Assistant Chief of North Sakwa location Ezekiel Okeyo said the gold rush was started in the Komire evacuation site where residents have camped day and night in search of the gold ores.
He noted that while the locals need roads their livelihoods cannot be denied but affirmed that they were doing everything to strike a balance at the excavation site.
Engineer Enos Odum from Egis Consultant Company and the site manager of the road affirmed that the gold rush both at the Komire evacuation site and Isebania-Migori-Road at Rongo town will slow down the road construction.
“We have decided to give locals at the Komire evacuation site time to scoop what they can so that we can continue with work. We are on a timeline to complete the project and we have decided to work concurrently with those collecting rocks to ensure our work is not entirely disrupted,” said Odum.
By Geoffrey Makokha
