Ikholomani miners use water from a recent downpour to sift the surrounding soil using makeshift sluices. [File, Standard]
The areas with rich gold deposits along the Lirhanda corridor include Malinya, Rosterman, Shirumba, Kilingili (along River Iguhu), Shipeso, Isulu, Bushiangala and Sigalagala.
Shanta Gold exploration report showed Kakamega alone has gold deposits valued at Sh200 billion while Ramula-Mwibona area lying on the border of Luanda and Gem constituencies in Vihiga and Siaya counties has about 470,000 ounces of gold whose street value is estimated at Sh61.81 billion.
Nakuru Town MP, David Gikaria who is the chairman of the Assembly's Departmental Committee on Environment, Forestry and Mining said the Bill would require foreign investors to have a local partner before being granted a mining license.
"The local partners must be a person who comes from the gold mining area," said Gikaria, adding, the law will ensure royalties from gold mining are ring-fenced to benefit the host community.
"When a mining company declares the value of gold deposits in an area,it will pay 1 percent of the total value which will go to the host community. After mining and selling of the precious metal, 5 per cent of the net profit of the total amount will be given back by the investor as royalties," said Mr Gikaria.
The lawmaker said out of the 5 percent royalties, 70 per cent will be surrendered to the national government, 20 per cent to the county government and the remaining 10 percent will go to the host community.
He said the 10 per cent that goes to the community would be handled by a trustee. "There shall be established Export Processing Zone (EPZ) where we shall process everything locally. We do not want to export gold to Dubai and make rings and buy them back at exorbitant prices. You can order it directly from Ikolomani," said Gikaria.
He said a laboratory to test, analyze and grade gold products will be set up soon in the area. "We will lobby our colleagues to pass the Bill to set the standards, regulate the sector and weed out people who exploit miners in a bid to enrich themselves," he said.
The locals want royalties from gold sales to be increased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.