- Due to various cultural reasons, women are not allowed to access the gold mines
- Women who own mining shafts have to rent them out to men
Even in this day and age of empowerment, women are still not allowed to work in the gold mines of Ikolomani and Rosterman in Kakamega.
According to stakeholders at the two leading mines in the region, women are not allowed to access the mines for various cultural reasons.
“It is nothing personal, but our cultural beliefs,” says 52-year-old Solomon Otsuku, who has been in mining business for the last 20 years.
The miner says it is an age-old cultural aspect that has been passed from one generation to another and no one has seen the need to interrogate and dispel it to date.
“It is widely and strongly believed that if you allow women in the mines, some who could be menstruating might get in and bring bad luck or omens,” says Otsuku.
Besides jinxing the mine, local men believe allowing a woman deep in the mine will bring misfortunes upon their male colleagues and their families.
“It is said that allowing women to work underground will bring death, disaster and a series of misfortunes to everyone working in that mine,” says Otsuku.
The very few women who are allowed to work with the miners but not access to the mines are the older ones who are past menopause. Still, they are only allowed to undertake ‘lighter duties’.
Usla Ubusena says she only deals with duties like winnowing and panning gold dust and spreading the ‘crude gold’ in the sun to dry.
“We would want to mine and get more ore than we are getting, but it is simply not possible, because it a male-dominated industry. We have women who own shafts, but they are forced to rent them to men for fear of breaking the norms,” Ubusena says.
Erick Moyo who hails from Migori but operating a shaft in Kakamega, says myths are the major factors inhibiting women from working underground as miners.
“Apart from myths, men view it as tedious and risky venture for women whom we care a lot about,” Moyo says.
