State hasn't leased out swathes of Kwale mine land, says PS

Principal Secretary for Mining Elijah Mwangi at a recent event. [Robert Tomno, Standard]

Huge tracts of land initially leased to Base Titanium Ltd in Kwale County have not been re-leased to other investors, Mining Principal Secretary Elijah Mwangi has said.

Quelling fears among the locals, Mwangi said the ministry would conduct a public participation exercise for residents to provide their input on how the land should be utilised.

Base Titanium, after winding up its activities in Kwale, is returning land ahead of the winding up of its operations by December this year.

Mr Mwangi said mineral resources had been exhausted and it did not make economic sense for another investor to apply for a license to mine there. He was speaking at Kinondo village in Msambweni sub-county during an introductory meeting ahead of the public participation exercise on how the land will be utilised.

"My office has not received any application or expression of interest from anyone over the Base Titanium's land. We are here to engage the community on what we should do with the land after the company stops operating," he said.

Over the last months, speculation was rife in Kwale County that a mysterious foreign investor had acquired thousands of acres of land.

The speculations triggered a public uproar from community organisations and other public interest groups that threatened to hold demonstrations to protest against this illegal land allocation.

With Base Titanium set to exit mining operations in December before the expiry of its special mining licence in June 2025, there has been interest in the fate of multi-billion shillings' assets including land, vehicles, piped water systems, boreholes, and water pans amongst others.