The mystery gold exports to UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has emerged as Kenya's fastest-growing market for gold exports in the first nine months of 2025, outpacing traditional major buyers such as Uganda and the United States.

This surge has been largely driven by a significant increase in smuggled gold exports from Kenya to Dubai, with Kenya exporting about 1,217.79 kilograms of gold in the past three months.

While Kenya’s own gold production is modest, officially slated at around 1 tonne annually, its gold shipments to Dubai have tripled to  42.1 tonnes, an increase of over 13.8 tonnes from the same period last year. 

Accusations from the Sudan, if proven, could be a pointer to the rise in the exports.

Kenya, it is said, is supporting the smuggling and resale of gold sourced from South Sudan, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a new report by SwissAid. The report, released late last month, shows that Kenya has, over the last 10 years, grown as the popular smuggling hub for gold, primarily destined for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), especially Dubai.

What is troubling is that a vast majority of the gold making its way into the country leaves without being declared.
“Part of the gold that is smuggled out of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and, to a lesser extent, Ethiopia, and possibly Sudan, passes through Kenya before being re-exported,” according to a report. 

The report notes: “Most of the gold that is smuggled out of Kenya is shipped to Dubai and declared for import there.”

“In other words, one can be confident about the existence of sizeable outbound illicit gold flows because this gold resurfaces further down along the value chain and becomes visible there through official statistics.”

Even more, SwissAid, which interviewed industry experts and evaluated government records, says that for most years since 2019, declared imports of gold from Kenya into other countries are higher than Kenya’s gold production and declared imports. 

Accusations by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua that government officials are facilitating the smuggling of gold from Sudan by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) point to the fact the rise in exports could also be smuggled gold.

Gold smuggling is not a new phenomenon in Kenya. In early 1990, Goldenberg International, a company that was owned by businessman Kamlesh Pattni and Spy Chief James Kanyotu, brought into the country larg,e considerable sums of illegal gold.

They had falsely convinced the powers that be that the country produced a lot of gold in Kakamega, Migori and West Pokot, which they could harness to generate foreign exchange for the Treasury.

Treasury agreed to compensate for their gold exports at a 35 per cent rate for every dollar received through an Export Compensation Scheme. Pattni then opened accounts in many local and international banks to show that the exports were indeed happening.

Meanwhile, the smuggled gold never left the country. It was used to prove to the Department of Mines and Geology that the country was indeed producing gold and to justify payouts from the Central Bank of Kenya for compensation.

It is feared that another scandal of such proportions could be looming, with large amounts of smuggled gold being presented as having been mined locally.

Although neighbouring countries like Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and South Sudan are major gold producers, weak governance, corruption, and conflict, especially in eastern DRC, fuel illicit flows.

Sources indicate that Kenya, with its stable financial system, major international airport, and powerful political connections, has become the preferred transit point.

The pattern is consistent: Gold is smuggled from source countries, often via land borders, into Kenya. It is then provided with falsified Kenyan certificates of origin, refined if necessary, and exported to destinations like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), particularly Dubai.

A 2023 report by the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC was unequivocal: “Kenya, and specifically Nairobi, is a major destination and transit point for illicit gold from eastern DRC.”

The report detailed how smuggling networks involve senior customs officials, police officers, and politically connected businessmen in Kenya.

Former Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila came to Nairobi on March 3, 2011 and held a one-hour closed-door meeting with President Mwai Kibaki over 2.5 tons of gold that had allegedly been smuggled to Kenya.

Even though DRC's presidential elections were only two months away and Kabila was facing stiff competition from opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, he made the trip he had to reclaim the Sh8 billion worth of gold.

And so the smuggling of Congolese gold through Kenya almost caused a diplomatic fallout. It subsequently emerged at considerable embarrassment to the Kenyan government that the two key brokers of this deal were Kenyan citizens, one of whom owned an artisanal refinery in Nairobi.

The Congolese president had presented a 392-page report, drafted by United Nations investigators, fingering Kenyan businessman Paul Kobia as the mastermind of the gold heist.

Kibaki ordered the police and KRA to constitute a team to probe the claims. The team led by Joseph Cheptarus, the KRA's Assistant Commissioner for Investigations and Enforcement, raided Kobia’s warehouse in JKIA but found no gold.

Less than 24 hours after the raid, Cheptarus was accosted by four gunmen outside his South C home at around 1 am and shot dead in February 2011.

That was after the killers had taken the guards hostage and for three hours ushered in motorists into the estate, pretending to be the watchmen while waiting for Cheptarus, who was shot four times at close range before his body was thrown out of his car, minutes after it went through the gate.

Kenya now is reported to be playing a major role in the regional illicit gold trade, and its nationals have routinely been named in UN sanctions reports.

Gold mining in Kenya is both a tale of promise and peril, starting from the colonial era to date.

It is a story of an elusive resource that has never helped communities despite attracting attention from international companies with promises to fuel economic dreams but in reality, only giving dark controversies. 

Gold mining in Kenya began during the colonial period, with the first documented discovery occurring in 1882 in Lolgorian, at the border of the Rift Valley and Nyanza provinces.

British prospectors, spurred by major finds in South Africa and Tanzania, began systematic exploration in the early 1900s. The colonial government's 1915 Mining Ordinance established the legal framework, declaring all mineral rights property of the Crown and requiring licenses for prospecting and mining. This law fundamentally alienated communities from the wealth beneath their feet.

The industry quickly gained momentum and in 1935, the Rosterman Gold Mines was established in Kakamega. The mine, operated by a British company, closed in 1952 when the gold dwindled and commercial production was no longer viable. Between 1935 and 1952, the Kakamega fields produced an estimated 259,000 ounces of gold before, worth over $300 million (Sh38.9 billion) 

The colonial era rules involving mining of gold set the foundation for Kenya’s gold industry, but it was also marked by exclusion. Most mining operations were controlled by foreign companies, and local participation was limited.

When Rosterman Gold Mines shut down, artisanal miners continued to work the abandoned sites, often using rudimentary methods and facing health and safety risks.

After independence in 1963, the Kenyan government’s focus was on agriculture and tourism; mining was a little concern.

The Mines and Minerals Act (Cap 306), a slight modification of the colonial ordinance, kept mineral rights firmly in state hands.

The Department of Mines and Geology was formed after independence. It had earlier been named the Mines Department in 1932. The name was later changed to the Mines and Geological Department in 1949. 

A 2024 Estimates by the Ministry of Mining shows Kenya has over one million artisanal miners producing perhaps 2-3 tonnes of gold annually—though almost none of it passed through formal channels.

Gold mining remained largely informal, and contributed little to national GDP, with estimates suggesting it accounted for only about 0.4 per cent as of 2020. Despite this, gold continued to attract miners, particularly in western Kenya, where towns like Kakamega and Ikolomani became synonymous with gold prospecting.

Meanwhile, the artisanal sector remained trapped in informality. A 2020 report by the international NGO IMPACT gives a different number and estimated that upwards of 250,000 Kenyans were directly employed in ASM gold, producing 90% of Kenya’s official output. Yet, they sold their gold for a fraction of its value to a network of informal brokers, feeding a lucrative but opaque domestic trade.

Over the decades, government policy evolved. The Mining Act of 2016 and the accompanying Mining and Minerals Policy aimed to modernize the sector, decentralize decision-making, and promote local participation. The Act sought to empower county governments, require mining companies to employ and train Kenyans, and establish benefit-sharing mechanisms between the national government, counties, and local communities.

“The 2016 Act was well-intentioned but poorly implemented,” explains George Onduto, a mining sector consultant “The capacity to regulate, monitor, and support both large investors and artisanal miners remained weak. The legal framework outpaced the institutional framework.”

Over the years, several high-profile incidents have drawn attention to the sector. In 2024, former Assistant Minister for Internal Security Stephen Tarus was detained in Uganda on alleged charges of gold smuggling.

Ugandan authorities alleged that Tarus was involved in the forgery of export documents for 13 kilograms of gold, valued at $30,000, destined for Dubai.

Other incidents include the interception of gold worth Sh100 million at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in late 2024. The gold was being smuggled in violation of East African Community customs laws.

The first major post-independence scandal hinting at gold’s darker allure erupted in 1987. It involved Goldenberg International, a company ostensibly exporting gold and diamonds to earn Kenya hard currency.

A Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigation in the early 1990s found that Goldenberg, owned by businessman Kamlesh Pattni, had claimed export subsidies for $600 million worth of gold and diamonds that were either grossly overvalued or never existed.

The scandal sucked in top figures in government and cost the Kenyan taxpayer an estimated 10% of GDP, stalling economic growth for a decade.

“Goldenberg was not about mining; it was about alchemy of a different kind—turning political connections into gold,” former MP and anti-corruption crusader Paul Muite stated in a 2003 interview. “It showed how a shadowy gold trade could be weaponised to loot a nation.”

In 2019 Belgian authorities impounded a cargo of 500kg of gold worth $30m at the time at Brussels Airport, shipped from Nairobi.

Documentation listed a shell company, Simba Gold Refinery, as the exporter. Investigations by Belgian media and Global Witness revealed the gold was believed to be from DRC, laundered through Kenya. The case exposed a web of Kenyan and Dubai-based companies. No major convictions in Kenya followed.

A 2023 Al Jazeera Investigation The “Gold Mafia” investigative story featured a Kenyan fixer, Samson Wanjala Wekesa, boasting of his ability to move millions in “blood gold” from DRC through Kenya to Dubai, using falsified documents and bribing officials.

 “In Kenya, everything is possible. We have the people in the system,” Wekesa said on camera. The investigation sent shockwaves, prompting a statement from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that it would probe the allegations. 

The government also seems to be clueless about the industry and contractors, and brokers seem to run rings around government officials.