Balala to Launch County Visits of Mining Areas in Taita Taveta.

Cabinet Secretary for Mining Hon. Najib Balala has announced the start of his official county visits with a familiarization field visit of the mines in Taita Taveta County, scheduled for Monday 30th September 2013. Speaking during a meeting with gemstone dealers who paid him a courtesy call in his office Monday, Balala said the county visits are important as they will enable him understand and analyze some of the critical issues facing local communities and small scale miners in the county. The Cabinet Secretary is also expected to meet with local leaders to discuss ways of improving mining activities in the region. Taita Taveta County has recently seen great developments in its mineral mining sector, with various developments on industrial minerals and gemstones. Gemstones such as the Ruby, Saphire , Rhodlite and Tanzanite are some of the gemstones that the county prides itself with, besides other industrial minerals such as iron ore, limestone, Graphite , Kyanite among others. Balala has announced his priority for the region as the need to establish gemstone cutting centres which currently lack in the region forcing miners to export raw materials to other countries for processing and value addition. Currently, Kenya exports its raw minerals hence fetching diminished returns. The potential in adding value is therefore undoubtedly high and critical, we shall build a warehouse in Voi as a gemstone cutting centre so as to invest in our own people said Balala He added that through value addition, the value of the countrys exports shall increase tenfold and in turn earn government royalty values. Additionally, the .C.S said value adding companies will employ additional personnel and contribute towards employment creation. The cabinet Secretarys visit and sensitization workshop for the small scale miners in the County is aimed at empowering them on the new mining act, besides seeking ways of addressing the miners challenges among them, the fact many of them operate informally and illegally even though they are good at prospecting for

minerals. It has also been reported that most of the small scale miners are exploited by large scale miners and brokers. Small scale miners rarely know the value of their gemstones and have little access to the gemstone markets which are largely controlled by large-scale dealers. The team of gemstone miners who visited the ministry of hailed the Cabinet Secretarys efforts to put in place new legislation which they said will rid the sector of unscrupulous dealers who collude with foreigners to deny the country a lot of revenue and destroy the market. They also hailed the move by the Minister to gazette new royalty charges saying it would help bring order in the sector. The Cabinet Secretary noted that the Kenyan Mining Industry is currently undergoing massive transformation and appealed to industry players to support the government in its efforts to streamline the sector. Balala said since the establishment of the Ministry, several strides have been made among them the new legislation which is currently in cabinet for approval and onward forwarding to parliament for enactment.

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