A joint operation team comprising of regular Kenya Police led by the Officer Commanding KaKuma Station, Vincent Ekiru Kamais and the County’s Law Enforcement team led by the Director of Inspectorate, Julius Wasama have acted swiftly to close one of the artisanal mining sites indefinitely and arrested the owner.

The County Chief Officer for the Department of Minerals Resources, Triza Amoni led her technical team to the site, following concerns raised by the members of Naduat community over the consistent blasting operations, non-compliance of the mining requirements and safety standards of the workers.

According to Amoni, John Korobe, the artisanal miner at Naduat, has on several occasions contravened the Mining Act 2016 regulations that provides; 95(3), a person shall not engage in artisanal mining operations unless the person has been granted an artisanal mining permit under this Act.

At the same time, 98 (2), the holder of an artisanal permit shall observe good mining practices, health and safety rules and pay due regard to the protection of the environment.

After further probe at the site, the CCO said the miner was found non-compliant of the mining modalities and requirements. She highlighted lack of consent letter from local administration, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Certificate, letter of no objections from the Department of Mineral Resources, county revenue and and national mining permits.

The Director of Mineral Resources, Stanley Loter said that the Directorate has written five warning letters to the miners in Naduat to stop the illegal practices in the site.

He further said they have continuously carried out community sensitisation meetings to create awareness to the miners, of the legal practices accepted in the mining industry.

Despite all the efforts done to help miners carry out their mining business without interference, Korobe has negligently ignored the adherence to the minimum requirements.

At the mining site, the team witnessed the coming out of the 16 youth who were holed up in the operation site. The youth who have been regular workers in the mine, four of them were minors.

Chief Amoni reiterated that the site would only be opened after the miner has satisfactorily complied with the statutory requirements.

The suspected miner was yesterday arrested and placed in custody in Kakuma Police Station, awaiting to be arraigned to court.