Kenya seeks mining lessons from Botswana, world's largest diamond producer

The Government is seeking to learn from Botswana as Kenya's mining sector readies for take-off.

As part of his itinerary on a three-day state visit to Botswana, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his delegation engaged mining sector officials and technocrats, and toured premier mining institutions.

The aim of the engagement was to learn from the best practices that Botswana has used to reap from mining, a field it has decades of experience in.

Botswana is the largest producer of diamonds in the world and is home to the world's biggest and most sophisticated rough diamond sorting and valuing company — Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTC) Botswana.

Mining Cabinet Secretary Dan Kazungu, who accompanied the President, said the manner in which Botswana had harnessed its mineral wealth to contribute to the growth of its economy was enviable.

"Today our economy is driven by agriculture and services as well as infrastructure development," he said. "But I think mining can lift this country from where it is contributing around one per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) to become a real integral part of the economic transformation," Mr Kazungu added.

He said Kenya and Botswana had set up a joint permanent commission and a committee of experts would soon be formed to formulate terms of reference for the two nations to co-operate in mining.

The CS said one of the things Kenya could learn from Botswana's mining experience was how to attract responsible and credible mining companies and how to hammer out the best deals.

"Sometimes as African countries we let multi-nationals push us so hard when it comes to negotiating mineral contracts that we end up ceding a lot of ground," Kazungu said.

"In Botswana, we have seen a model where the interests of the investors and the country are balanced."

He said the Botswana Government played a big role in making the mining sector beneficial and Kenya could learn vital lessons.

"The issue of being in control of everything - from the mining fields to the processing, management and distribution - is a vital lesson," the former Malindi MP added.

Kazungu said being in control means the country will know how to get the best out of the resources so that it can contribute to economic transformation.

"We have a lot to learn from the Botswana experience and we want to see how we can put this into our context in Kenya," the CS said.

Kazungu spoke after the President and his delegation toured DTC Botswana in Gaborone and later visited the Orapa Diamond Mine yesterday.