Regulations to streamline the mining sector

Mombasa,

Thursday, September 7, 2023

KNA by Sadik Hassan

The State Department of Mining has embarked on a countrywide public participation exercise on the proposed draft regulations under the Mining Act, of 2016.

Director of Mines Gregory Gituku said the public participation offers an opportunity for the State Department for Mining to interact with its stakeholders.

Speaking at a Mombasa Hotel, Gituku said the government is keen to improve the livelihoods of artisanal mining, and commended the people of Coast for coming in their numbers in the public participation.

 “This public participation has been engaging and enriching. We are going to consider what they have said,” he noted.

“The Kenya kwanza government is very particular on the mining sector more so formalization of artisanal mining,” he said, “In the last financial year, we started formalising them through forming cooperatives that are based on mineral commodities. We did for 16 counties we intend to finalize in this financial year,” he said. 

Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Salim Mvurya according to section 223 of Mining Act, No. 12 of 2016 developed the Draft Mining (Gemstone Identification and Value Addition) (Fees) Regulations, 2023.

Others are the Draft Mining (License & Permit) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023, the Draft Mining (Dealings in Minerals) (Amendment Regulations, 2023, the Draft Mining (Mine Support Services) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023, the Draft Mining (Royalty Collection and Management) Regulations, 2023 and the Draft Mining (Mineral Royalty Sharing) Regulations, 2023.

The artisanal miners will get mining permits after capacity building to be able to work in a predictive environment. “We expect they are going to improve their production and improve their livelihood,” said Gituku.

Advisor, Mvurya’ Office Rodgers Chimega said another team is engaging stakeholders in the western part of the country covering the Rift Valley, Nyanza, and Western region. 

“We have a different team in Western and Nyanza region, mostly in areas where mining takes place.

“The regulations will streamline the mining sector. It’s an inaugural public participation through the efforts of CS Mvurya and Principal Secretary Elijah Mwangi to ensure harmony in the sector according to the law,” he said.         

On his part, Chairman of Kenya Chamber of Mines Patrick Kanyoro asked the government to reduce some of the proposed fees to open up the mining sector and attract foreign investors.

“We appeal to the government to suspend the introduction of application fees for the time being. There have been no activities in the sector since 2019 because of the moratorium and the best thing as an incentive is to allow people to get the license and gradually increase the fees as they do the mining,” he said.

On royalties, Kanyoro said they ought to be collected from minerals that are exported at the point of exit.

He said the proposed charge of Sh5million on the transfer of mining rights will make Kenya lose investors to the neighbouring countries thus the need to remove barriers.

“It’s very difficult to talk about developing the economy through minerals if we are not going to do elaborate exploration. If we put barriers to people coming to explore then we will not be able to discover minerals thus not developing the mineral sector,” he said.

He said: “We are competing with other mining countries If we are not competitive then we are not going to attract the big players. "

On artisanal and small-scale miners, Kanyoro asked the government to give them some leverage to get back into business and make positive contributions to the economy.

 “It’s important that government takes proactive action otherwise would be seen to disenfranchise the artisanal and small-scale miners,” he said.

A Commissioner with the Parliamentary Service Commission Johnstone Muthama, who is a gemstone trader echoed Kanyoro’s sentiments on royalty saying it should not exceed three per cent and miners to be given 120 days to pay.

Courtesy; KNA