Sh7b funding for mineral mapping

China Eximbank will fund Kenya’s mapping of geological resources if ongoing talks succeed. A source privy to the closed-door meetings disclosed to The Standard that the talks are at an advanced stage.

And if China agrees to Kenya’s request, it will also be a Chinese Company that will be contracted to do the exercise. Kenya, through the ministry of mining, is said to have presented a request funding to a tune of Sh7 billion to carry out the exercise which China has given a nod to.

The money will cater for both the geological mapping and interpretation of data.

Once China agrees to the request, which the source gave timelines of a few months, a contractor will be selected to carry out the exercise. “Most probably, the contractor will also be Chinese as it is their tradition to have their own carry out projects they have funded,” the source disclosed.

In other projects that have been carried out in the country, funded by the Chinese, it has also been their own contractor implementing it.

A good example is the Standard Gauge Railway that will be unveiled by President Uhuru Kenyatta this week, whose funding came from Eximbank of China. The contractor was China Road and Bridge Corporation.

Previously, there were reservations in some government quarters of having a foreign company carry out geological mapping of minerals on grounds that it will expose the country’s wealth-and give conflicting details of the actual minerals.

“Because this is our heritage, we want to be careful so that we go about it in a way that integrity and use of that data is guarded to give us comfort. That is why we said it has to be Kenyan-led,” Mining Cabinet Secretary Dan Kazungu said earlier.

Three years ago, Kenya and the Geological Exploration Technology Institute from China had an agreement to carry out the mapping exercise at a cost of Sh6.5 billion.