A rare pricey mineral christened Tsavorite has fuelled a row among various groups that want to control a mine in Mwatate, Taita Taveta county.
The mine is in a 6,000 acre-ranch in Chawia ward.
So vicious is the row that a judge of the Environment and Land court is scheduled to visit the mine at Mkuki Ranch on January 26 to have real grasp of the dispute.
Justice Lucas Naikuni has been handling the case after more parties emerged to lay claim to the land.
Tsavorite is a rare gemstone originally found in Tsavo, hence its name and is deemed as a pricey jewel.
Claims are rife about vested interests by powerful politicians from the region following the rich mineral resources in the property.
Following the dispute, the mineral has never been marketed; neither has the government succeeded in bringing investors to explore it for revenue.
Court papers show that Jackreek Enterprises – a Kenyan firm and Chawia community based organisation are fighting for the site believed to be the gate to the deposits.
Jackreek argues that its investments of more than Sh150 million to extract the mineral are at risk following the alleged interference by the CBO.
The disputed land belongs to Mkuki Ranch, with the latter due to renew its 45-year-lease which expired in January 2020.
Mkuki has the land’s title deed and argues that it has to hand over the old title deed to the National Land Commission for any other lessee to take the land.
The law requires that NLC issues a new title deed to the person who has successfully renewed the lease, with priority given to the immediate holder.
Chawia CBO claims that the land is communal and ancestral and as such there is no dispute over its ownership.
"There is no dispute over the ownership of the land but rather a breach of the joint venture agreement by the plaintiff [Jackreek]," Chawia CBO chairman Stephen Mwadime said in his pleadings.
It thus wants Jackreek to vacate the property, prompting the investor to sue. Mkuki Ranch has backed Jackreek as an interested party.
But in its filings, the investor argues that the CBO has no land owner’s consent, no valid license and no Nema license to lay claim to the 6,000-acre piece.
Following its case – certified urgent, before Judge Naikuni, Jackcreek secured orders to stop any activities on the land.
An ‘inter parte’ hearing has been scheduled on January 26, 2024 – the same date the judge is set to visit the site.
“That the order of status quo be maintained meaning the situation should remain as it was before the filing of this case. In essence, there should be no activities on the land at all,” the order reads.
The court issued a penal notice to the persons served the order -since the dispute was filed.
“Take notice that any party served with this order and fails to comply shall be liable for contempt of court proceedings and the court may jail the defaulting party for a jail term not exceeding six months,” the order reads.
However, despite three court orders prohibiting mining activities, a person allegedly died after a mine collapsed at the disputed site last Wednesday.
In March 2023, an illegal miner was killed after an alleged underground explosive caused the mine to cave in.
In the same month, Nema ordered that activities at the mine be stopped.
“You are therefore directed to immediately stop all mining activities on the site, backfill all the abandoned pits and rehabilitate the site to the satisfaction of the authority,” Nema county director Edith Kalo had said.
She said the environment was not fenced and deep pits were excavated haphazardly.
The authority citing environmental concerns, said as a result, the area is heavily degraded.
It told the chairperson of Chawia to cease conducting mining activities at the Mkuki Ranch for violating the law.
Jackreek was invited to the site in 2018 and by September 2019, it reached a deal for a joint venture with the CBO.
Reportedly In the arrangement, Chawia was to provide the landowners consent, license and other necessary paperwork.
The investor was to reportedly bring technical expertise and market the precious minerals and the proceeds were to be shared on a 60:40 basis.
But by December 2019, new land owners – Mkuki Ranch, came up, exposed Chawia as having no owner's consent, leading to fallout.
The Mining Act of 2016 requires land owner's consent to be sought to allow mining activities on any property.
Jackreek then reportedly joined hands with Mkuki after which they secured orders for Chawia to vacate the land.
However, since December 2019, the CBO has not moved out of the land identified as LR29222/CR No 30417.
