Group eyes limestone mining in Taita Taveta

Dr Sankale ole Shombole (centre) at the Kajiado Marble Quarry during a benchmarking trip by Taita Taveta representatives on November 9, 2021. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

Residents of a remote village in Voi are set to benefit from huge deposits of limestone and marble following a decision by the Diaspora University Trust (DUT) to assist in the mining.

The project that is projected to cost more than Sh2 billion, will also include the construction of a Diaspora University Town.

Other institutions to be constructed are a medical hospital, a state of the art biotechnology laboratory, and a laboratory for vaccines.

Yesterday, a section of residents from Ndara B community visited Kenya Marble Quarry in Kajiado County for bench-marking.

Speaking during the tour, Dr Sankale ole Shombole, a scientist who has been living in the US and operating the mining fields in Kajiado Central, said Taita Taveta has high quality of limestone deposits and once excavated, can change the lives of many people.

“The resources can generate a huge amount of money to the community; limestone can be sold as raw materials in form of stones, as manufactured products such as terrazzo, lime which goes to livestock feeds, among others,” said Sankale.

According to the Diaspora University Town Executive Trustee Dan Kamau, the idea to construct the university in the area was started after coming up with systems to monitor Diaspora cash that is today reflected through remittances.

The residents have donated more than 1,500 acres of land near Voi town that will be used to initiate the project.

He supported the opening of manufacturing industries saying DUT will give a guarantee to purchase the materials produced. He noted that one of the ways that will fast-track the opening of industries by Kenyans in diaspora is remitting capital through the DUT Credit system.

The project comes as financial reports indicating that diaspora remittances stood at Sh392 billion between October 2020 to September 2021.