Taita Taveta county artisanal miners want the government to allocate them a stimulus package to boost their businesses.
They said the mining sector, just like agriculture, should be prioritised when awarding stimulus packages that would cushion them from the adverse effects of Covid-19.
Speaking during a meeting with a lobby group at Kituma quarry in Mwatate subcounty on Monday, they asked the ministries of Mining and National Treasury to implement the establishment of a revolving fund for the small-scale miners.
“Many small-scale miners are already getting it rough from the prolonged economic hardship,” Robbertina Machila, a miner said.
Machila observed that many mining zones had been neglected by the government and that there is no provision of sanitation, health and water services.
“Both county and national governments should provide all services at the mining sites in consultation with the artisanal miners,” she said.
Further, they want the government to shield them from exploitation by large-scale miners who they say have been pushing them from mineral-rich areas.
“Large-scale miners use artisanal miners for the purposes of prospecting then dump them whenever there is discovery of significant mineral deposits,” Saida Mandi, a miner, said
Despite the massive deposits of precious minerals in the region, a large percentage of the community has hardly benefited from them. Many small-scale miners are still languishing in poverty.
Some of the exquisite minerals in the region include tsavorite, ruby, tourmaline, red garnets, green garnets, tanzanite and iron ore. Others are manganese and limestone.
Taita Taveta Human Rights Watch activist Beatrice Mjomba has also criticised the government for non-involvement of artisanal miners in decision-making.
She said the Ministry of Mining should initiate afresh the process of drafting at least six documents that are proposed to streamline the mining sector.
Mjomba said most of the mining stakeholders were not involved in drafting of the documents.
“The documents exhibit a lot of duplication and misplaced ideologies that could have been avoided if the drafters could have made the process inclusive,” she said.
If not changed, Mjomba said, the guidelines might push the artisanal miners out of operations and into poverty, through loss of livelihoods.
