A committee of the National Land Commission on Tuesday launched a four-day investigative workshop on matters relating to land and compensations over mining activities in Kwale county.
Commissioner Reginal Okumu said the research will focus on the challenges surrounding the mining activities and the environmental impact on the communities.
He said they will try to review the policies made to mitigate the effects of mining processes on both humans and the environment.
“Anything taking place must have some measures in order to reduce harm and to protect the ecosystem, among others,” Okumu said.
NLC will conduct research on how Australian mining company Base Titanium has been running operations and its contribution to the surrounding communities.
The commissioner said the land acquisition, reclamation, and resettlement of displaced persons would also be a point of interest.
Mining activities, he said, have the potential to raise Kwale’s economy but its input is not seen because of unknown issues.
A similar research exercise is also expected to be done in Kajiado county.
The commissioner said the investigations will provide a good framework to understand the challenges affecting the implementation of the 2016 Mining Act on royalty-sharing.
The national government was supposed to get 70 per cent with the rest shared between the county government and the local community.
Base Titanium has generated about Sh2 billion royalties from the mineral resources since it started operations.
Last year, residents had wanted the act revised to give the community the bigger share as they blamed the government for benefiting alone.
It is said since mining started, the law outlined to guide royalty-sharing has not been effective and all the royalties and income taxes directly go to the government.
Coast Development Authority director Mshenga Ruga once proposed that Parliament should draft a bill to help separate money from the consolidated accounts to end the protracted royalty-sharing feuds.
Then Mining PS John Omenge said the policy would be ready by early January this year.
Current PS Kirimi Kaberia in July said the government was in the final stages of streamlining the policy of royalty division.
Okumu said research will empower the government to rectify some of the mistakes made to enhance the success of the implementation of the policy, among other things.
Governor Salim Mvurya said his administration will work with the NLC committee to see that the residents’ rights are protected.
Edited by R.Wamochie
