Residents of Ndira in North Sakwa location are up in arms against a family in their village whom they accuse of illegally acquiring gold mining rights in the area without their consent.
As a result, the residents say, they have been subjected to harassment and illegal confinement in police cells for practicing artisanal mining that has been their livelihood for ages.
Addressing journalists at Ndira trading centre, the residents appealed for urgent government intervention into the matter and have the purported mining licence granted to one Evelyn Mutuku revoked if peace and harmony was to prevail.
Led by the chairman of the Ndira artisanal mining Sacco, Isaiah Otieno, the residents lamented that the licence holder has blocked mining activities even on private lands whose owners were not aware of the development.
Otieno said that his Sacco, that has been working on a new site for the last three years, was surprised when a team from the State department of Mining visited and stopped them from operating for lack of requisite licences and permits.
“We complied and applied for the relevant documents from the ministry and the national Environment Management Authority (NEMA),” he said.
To their surprise, he said, the team informed them that they could not be allowed to operate as one Evelyne Mutuku had already acquired the licence. “To make the matters worse, the officials refused to return our documents,” lamented Otieno.
Land owners, Leonard Orwa Ogonyo and Helida Akoth Walori, who had entered agreement with the artisanal gold miners lamented that no body, even the government agencies contacted them over the issuance of the licence.
Walori, a widow on wheel chair, said she relied on the payments from the miners to purchase diabetes and high blood pressure drugs and wondered who she will turn to, with the turn of events.
The chairman of Kowino Ojwang’ family who owns the land in dispute, George Adede Owuor said he has been locked up at Bondo police station twice for questioning the persistent harassment of the miners and manner in which the licence was issued.
Owuor said that the licensee was married in a family in the village, adding that their parcels of lands were far apart. “We are not opposed to her having the licence but let it be confined to her family land, not ours,” he said.
The residents appealed to local leaders to urgently intervene as the development has negatively affected tens of youths who were now idle.
By Philip Onyango
