- Mining and Blue Economy CS Hassan Joho directed the licensing after a meeting with Asmak on Monday
- Vice chairman Patrick Ligami said the licenses will be issued to miners through their co-operatives
Image: HILTON OTENYO
The government has directed that licences be issued to artisanal miners.
The Artisanal and Small Scale Miners Association of Kenya said Mining and Blue Economy CS Hassan Joho gave the directive on Monday.
Asmak national vice chairman Patrick Ligami said the licences will be issued to miners through their co-operatives.
Artisans account for 90 per cent of activities in the mining industry.
“We had a fruitful meeting with the CS and discussed what has been ailing in the informal mining sector. Key among them are delays in licensing of artisanal miners because lack of the licences has created a lot of confusion in the sector,”Ligami said.
He added that the government has been losing revenue in terms of royalties, as unscrupulous investors carry out mining activities without licences under the pretext of 'enjoying protection from above'.
No licenses have been issued since enactment of the Mining Act, 2016.
Further, during the meeting, the CS denied that the government sent or licensed any miners across the country.
“The minister said no one should be allowed to sneak into the mining locations as investors because only the government will identify investors for the sector,” Ligami said.
Licensing of artisanal miners is supposed to be done in the counties by their respective mining committees.
Chairmen of the committees are appointees of respective governors.
It has also emerged that the committees, established by the Ministry of Mining and Blue Economy, are dysfunctional because of lack of funding.
The committees are responsible for advising the representative of the director of mines in granting, renewal or revocation of artisanal mining permits.
In the Monday meeting, Ligami said Joho had directed the committees to issue the licences as pending issues about the National Environment Management Authority would be handled later.
Nema banned mining along waterways and artisans operating along rivers are constantly harassed and arrested.
From the meeting, miners were also encouraged to identify "any strange entrants in the mining sector to ensure the lowest cadre miners benefit from the resources".
This comes after artisanal gold miners in Kakamega also complained of being ignored by the government.
They said the government only licences big companies, leaving artisans to operate without documentation.
This exposes them to harassment by the "investors", who approach families for their land, only to end up defrauding the landowners.