Lolgorian miners have searched for gold for years yet poverty stalks them

Narok, Kenya: One would expect signs of opulence when traversing the villages and trading centres on the way to the gold mines of Nyatikile, deep inside Kilgoris.

But there is hardly any sign among locals that the precious commodity is mined in this part of Trans Mara in Narok County.

Modest dwellings and dilapidated homes flash past as one drives along the rough, dusty, earth feeder roads. Gold mining in Lolgorian dates back to the period when white settlers lived in the area, long before Kenya attained her independence.

The hopeless situation is mainly blamed on the fact that most of the miners are ill equipped to fully exploit the mineral. During a visit to the mines, The Standard on Sunday found a group of youth covered in white dust, busy chipping away from rocks and grinding them into a fine powder.

Harmful fumes and collapsing mines are some of the risks that small-scale gold miners in Lolgorian expose themselves to in their search for the precious gold. Janet Jemutai told The Standard on Sunday that she has worked in the mines for one year, washing crushed rock powder in search for gold metal.

Chocking dust

Next to her is a plastic bottle she once used to carry perfume to apply on her skin that is exposed to layers of chocking dust. Today, she uses the bottle to store a few particles of gold she collects after toiling for many hours in the chocking heat.

“There are no jobs here, no income, but we have mouths to feed. It is not a worthy job, but those you see here have to live from something,” she says, eyes trained on a metallic basin she uses to pan the gold.

More than 500 seasonal other gold miners are spread across the mountainous region, where they sell the metals to middlemen at throwaway prices.

Every sunrise, Ms Jemutai, who is barely 20, in the company of several other miners, reports to seven mining sites with hopes of putting food on their tables.

Wearing a brown old skirt, she is quick to explain why her T-shirt has several holes on the shoulder, as she takes us through the daily harrowing process they go through to earn a living.

“Everyday we transport heavy rocks from mining sites to where crushing machines are situated. We really suffer, but what options do we have?” she poses. It is the heavy rocks she ferries everyday that have wasted her T-shirt on both shoulders, exposing her skin to the battering of the boulders. Approximately 20 metres from Jemutai is another small-scale miner, Simon Odhiambo.

He is preparing to go into the mining tunnel 35 metres below the ground with a spotlight tied around his black hat as his only protective gear. He wears no mask or gloves. Mr Odhiambo says he quit farming eight years ago and since then he has worked in mining caves to make ends meet.

The open-pit mines have left a huge environmental problem in the fields where more pits are created daily.

Nyatikile is one of the poorest parts of Kilgoris County.

It is remote and neglected, the roads are littered with gullies and the area neither has electricity nor piped water. Most residents here belong to the ethnic Maasai community and are agri-pastoralists, who live along the Kenya/Tanzania border.

Lucia Robi says she can now afford to pay school fees and earn some money from the quarries, which were a preserve of men, to run her small businesses. In 2010, the single mother of six left her rural home in Kuria after life became unbearable.

Her aging mother agreed to take care of her children and she now sends money for upkeep, apart from visiting them after every six months.

“Back home there is no space for farming and the remaining plots only accommodate homesteads,” she says.

Beryl Owuor is another miner who cannot remember the year she left her parents’ home in Kisumu after a friend informed her about the common economic activity in Nyatikile.

Like the rest of the miners, she is not sure when she will return home. Ms Owuor, 24, says she has been mining at Nyatikile for close to six years, but has little to show for it.

Daily, she works tirelessly and ends up with one or two points of gold, which earns her a paltry Sh200 on a good day.

Without protective gear such as a helmet, gloves and nose mask, she is aware of the risk she is exposing herself to, but cannot do much to avoid it.

George Onyango says he spends 12 hours below the earth surface under tunnels, knocking on hard rocks and scooping before ferrying it using old and tattered bags to the earth surface. “We simply speculate and dig to see what we can get. A day or two can pass before we trace any gold,” says Mr Onyango.

Everyday Onyango and his group encounter pools of water deep down the earth and have to use powerful generators to empty the tunnels and at the same time feed them with fresh air.

“This is what I have been doing for the last five years but I have nothing much to show for it. He reveals that miners of his category pay the Government Sh11,000 as local leases annually and proceed to renew it yearly by paying an extra Sh250.

Former Commissioner for Mines Lojomon Biwott says dust from the mining rocks, if inhaled over a period, can lead to chronic diseases such as Bronchitis.

Miners here crush the core rocks using a locally manufactured diesel driven engine, commonly found in the area.

Onyango says he uses mercury to absorb gold from the already crushed rock cores as the only method known to the small-scale miners but has dire consequences on the environment and health of the local community.

Cabinet Secretary for Mining Najib Balala said local miners’ dump waste with high concentration of mercury on open lands, which when vaporised can be absorbed into the soil.

This he says is dangerous because it finds way into water bodies where human beings drink it or inhale the contaminated air.

“Mercury is a heavy metal and its consumption can lead to cancer, it should be controlled and those handling it trained and proper ways of managing the substance,” he explained.