Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Daily Nation
Published on 2024-02-03 15:39:53
hours and earn peanuts while tycoons and foreign investors are the ones who benefit most. That is why our lives have never improved,” he added. Despite the challenges, the vast majority of those working in the mines are young people, mainly young men, some of whom are barely out of school. This is because mining has become a popular but risky venture among the youth. Young and old people explain that working in the mines is a good source of income, especially for the people who are struggling. “The minerals fetched us some money and enabled us to provide for our families,” said Mary Wanjiku, a 58-year-old woman. “The men are the ones who go to the mines. The small amount of money they earn helps us put food on the table,” she added. According to Mwaniki, the miner, it is ironical that the area lacks basic facilities yet it is home to a valuable mineral. “A visit to the village will show you how bad things are. Everyone around here is poor,” he said. “Not even the rich are exempt from the biting poverty,” Mwaniki added.
The county government is rolling out an initiative to empower miners in the village by training and equipping them. It is also planning to build a hospital and extend power to ensure the community benefits from the mineral. Governor Martin Wambora, while addressing residents last week, said the empowerment of the mining community is a priority. “We will set up rehabilitation centres for drug addicts and alcoholics. We have embarked on several development initiatives in the village to ensure benefits from the mineral,” he said.
Wambora said his administration is working with development partners to ensure the village is transformed, and residents enjoy the benefits of the mineral. He said the county plans to build more schools and expand existing facilities to accommodate the increasing number of pupils. He said they also plan to provide clean water to the households and embark on an ambitious electricity connection plan. “Residents will soon feel the impact of the presence of minerals in the region,” he said. “We are going to support investors who will come here to extract the mineral. We must insist that there should be a prospecting programme to see whether our people can actually extract the mineral themselves. We want to give incentives,” Wambora said. He urged residents to take advantage of opportunities that come with the mining of coltan, saying it is an opportunity for the community to benefit. Once all the plans to exploit the minerals are actualised, the village will be transformed, with its residents becoming some of the richest in the region, the governor added. However, local mining companies and cooperatives want a stake in the trade, saying they want to mine and export the minerals themselves. They said they are ready to buy modern machines to enhance their productivity, deepen mining and process minerals before exporting. They said they are also ready to trade with international minerals merchants who return to the country due to the government’s decision to ban the exportation of raw materials overseas.
The mining business, they added, could be a game-changer for the village. Meanwhile, locals hope that the government’s promise to support them with tractors, bulldozers, and road graders to improve infrastructure materialises, and that the promise of extending electricity to the village is fulfilled, as well as the rehabilitation of roads. It remains to be seen whether these promises will be fulfilled and if the lives of those living in the village will change for the better.
Read the original article on Daily Nation
