Miners urge Uhuru to commission Voi gem centre

Small scale miners in Taita Taveta have urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to commission the Voi Gemstone Value Addition Centre before leaving office in August.

The miners said they have continued counting losses due to overexploitation by middlemen who buy their precious stones at throwaway prices.

They said commissioning of the facility was long overdue and that they should be allowed to use it.

“This facility is yet to benefit our people. We are pleading with the President to commission it before exiting in August, because he is the one who started it,” Taita Taveta Artisanal Miners’ Association chairman David Nzowe said in an interview on Tuesday.

Nzowe said the gemstone center shall benefit over 1500 small-scale miners across the mineral- rich county.

“Hundreds of artisanal miners will get good returns once they start selling their gemstones through the center. It is the only way that people can benefit from natural resources,” he added.

The construction of the Sh60 million gemology center started in 2015 and ended in 2017, but there has been little progress in the processing of gemstones since then.

It is one of the government’s mining flagship projects and the only facility in Kenya where value addition of minerals is to take place.

The centre will provide a wide range of services including stone cutting, polishing, banking, a gemstone laboratory and a buying center.

Artisanal miner Mohammed Mzungu said residents are still wallowing in poverty, despite sitting on tonnes of minerals.

He said fast-tracking the opening of the gemology center would help the community, which is yet to benefit from the massive deposits of valuable minerals.

“How would you explain that people are still poor yet hundreds of uncut stones are sold here every day? The government has to cut off the cartel chain for us to benefit,” Mzungu said.

The region is endowed with tomes of numerous gemstones including tsavorite, ruby, chrome tourmaline, yellow tourmaline, red garnets, green garnets and tanzanite.

Others are manganese, iron ore, marble and limestone.

While inspecting the construction progress two months ago, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining Ag director Evans Masachi assured mining stakeholders that the center shall be fully functional by March this year.

Masachi said the ministry is in the final stages of procuring key equipment to supplement existing equipment before commissioning.

According to a report by the National Development Implementation and Technical Committee, the government targets to generate some Sh3 billion annually once the gem center is functional.

This will be as a result of revenue from value-addition of gemstones set for export.

Currently, Kenya is losing revenue due to smuggling of uncut gemstones.

Middle men export the minerals to Middle East countries without paying taxes.

The center will ensure that minerals are processed, packed and labeled with all taxes paid before export.

The mining industry also faces the challenge of unlicensed small-scale miners who mostly dominate many parts of the mining zones in the region.

They have been pinpointed for selling gemstones to brokers and middlemen, thus making the market unstable.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)