For many years now, Kenya’s top leaders have been obsessively dreaming of the possible discovery of valuable mineral resources within our borders. It is easy to understand the strong appeal of such dreams: it would involve a complete change in what it means to be an elected leader here in Kenya.
Instead of struggling with the immensely difficult task of enhancing tax revenues our elected leaders would instead spend their days and nights pleasantly dreaming up new schemes for “projects” they could finance with the mineral wealth which was – quite literally – being scooped out from the ground.
But thus far we have only had one extractive sector investment that deserves mention as being a serious mining operation, as opposed to the artisanal mining one finds in various parts of the country. I refer of course to the Base Titanium mining operations in Kwale county, which has for some years now been yielding royalties, and so has been a useful source of additional revenues for the government.
But of interest right now is that it is winding up its operations in Kwale, as it has exhausted the natural resource that it has been mining all these years. Steps are underway for Base Titanium to now commence mining operations in Madagascar – and the roughly 1,700 employees and contractors are having their final compensations processed.
Now the same Kwale has perhaps the finest beachfront in the country, generically referred to as the “South Coast” by tourism operators. And the South Coast has been a magnet for investors seeking to build new beach resorts for many decades.
There is also now an emerging focus on holiday homes, as much for Europeans who have chosen to settle in Kenya, as for upper middle-class Kenyans who can afford such things.
And whether you talk of job creation or of tax revenues, it is clear enough that tourism within Kwale County has been far more profitable to investors; far more advantageous to the government; and also offered far more employment opportunities to ordinary Kenyans, than the mining operations of Base Titanium.
I mention this in the context of recent columns I have written on the clash of priorities that Kenyan policy makers have to address, when the need for modern or upgraded infrastructure has come up against the even greater need to preserve our environmental assets like game parks, or water catchment montane ecosystems.
The examples I gave to make this point included world-famous game parks like Lake Nakuru National Park (known for its flamingos and other birdlife but at one point threatened by a proposed rerouting of the Nairobi-Nakuru highway); Nairobi National Park and Tsavo National Park (for both of which elevated railway lines (viaducts) had to be built to accommodate the movement of the animals in the parks); and the Aberdares National Park (perhaps Kenya’s most important water catchment ecosystem, currently threatened by the proposed “Mau Mau Road”).
Pristine white, sandy beaches are also environmental assets. And as the Kwale example shows, they continue to be assets ‘ad infinitum’, so long as we preserve them in that pristine state.
Tourism has a large variety of investors, both big and small. And so, if we include all aspects of tourism, from lavishly exotic beach resorts to the individually owned holiday homes and Airbnb operations, experts estimate that it employs roughly a million people directly, and much the same number indirectly.
Whereas when it comes to mining, not only is it a highly technical and specialised activity which relatively few global corporations can undertake successfully, but you would need at least 1,000 mines of the same size and scope as Base Titanium to obtain the same direct employment benefits and other economic opportunities that are currently reaped by ordinary Kenyans through tourism.
And yet any such mines would have a limited lifespan. Sooner or later, the mineral resource runs out. While with tourism, between the continuing global demand for exotic vacations and our own growing middle class, we are even now barely at 30 per cent of our potential as a tourism destination.
