An MP yesterday said residents
will not move from their land to
make way for coal mining in the
Mui Basin.
Mwingi Central MP Gideon
Mulyungi said land was greatly
undervalued. He rejected the benefit-sharing agreement signed in 2014 by Kitui leaders and a Chinese
coal mining company.
Mulyungi said the agreement
shortchanges residents and only
benefits the county government. Mui Basin is in his constituency.
The Fenxi Industry Mining
Company is to start mining in six months but growing resistance
might delay operations.
Mulyungi told Governor Charity
Ngilu to stay away from the project.
He spoke at Mathuki Shopping
Centre where he addressed villagers
occupying blocks A, B, C and D.
“Locals are very comfortable
in their land without the trillions
promised, which they are
not sure they will benefit from,”
Mulyungi said.
Recently, Ngilu told residents
they will be paid and relocated to
places like Kanyoonyoo, Engamba
and Sosama. Mining will help end poverty, she said.
“No one is willing to leave their
homes to go and live in the promised
flats. My people are not relocating,”
Mulyungi said.
He said that according to Kamba
tradition, people are buried at their
family homes, not in cemeteries.
“The at [relocation] is something
disturbing the locals and they cannot
exhume their deceased and
carry their skeletons to go and bury them elsewhere.”
