Residents of Chemase in Nandi want the government to protect licensed mining firms to help spur development in the rural area.
They want illegal artisan miners prevented from encroaching on areas Karebe Gold Mining Company has been licensed to operate to end conflict.
The residents led by Dickson Seronei and AIC priest the Rev Julius Kosgei said they wanted harmony and were not interested in conflict being fueled by self-seekers over gold deposits in Kamuny area.
Rev Kosgei said those responsible for the killing of three miners at the Karebe mines in January should be arrested for being a threat to peace in the area.
They spoke at Kamuny when they witnessed the delivery of medical supplies to five dispensaries by officials of Karebe Gold.
“We, as residents of this region, don’t understand why the government shouldn’t provide total support to this company whose CSR has been felt across here: roads, piped water and bursaries to the needy,” Rev Kosgei said.
The elders appealed to Mining CS Salim Mvurya to use the constitutional powers bestowed to him to compulsorily acquire all the areas with gold deposits and hand them over to licensed company.
“This will stop illegal miners who don’t pay any royalties nor support any community projects from unnecessary interference with smooth foreign investments,” Mzee Seronei said.
Tension has been building up in Chemase area after the ODPP failed to prefer charges on 10 suspects implicated in murder of three gold miners at Karebe in January.
Kapsabet chief magistrate Samuel Mokua released the suspects after the DPP Noordin Haji failed to press murder charges on the 10.
Despite an orchestrated pressure from human rights groups led by Kenya Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International, the government decided not to charge.
A high powered DCI team led by then head of investigations Eliud Lagat,-now GSU Commandant, had linked the 10 with the blast that claimed the lives of Geofrey Onyango, Julius Kipchumba and Geofrey Rotich.
Six other miners were seriously injured after the illegal miners entered the tunnels and blasted the dynamites as Karebe mining company workers were inside extracting rocks containing the precious metals.
The blast triggered a visit by British high Commissioner Jane Marriot to Nandi seeking an assurance that British and European interests were taken care by both the county and national governments.
