A section of Ikolomani residents have warned off Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and his colleague, the Senator for Vihiga, Godfrey Osotsi, over alleged interference in the Ikolomani gold dispute, claiming that the outsiders want to exploit the Ikolomani gold.
Speaking during a media interview on Tuesday December 16, 2025, the residents claimed that the leaders should leave Ikolomani residents to address their own issues without interference.
One of the residents asked Senator Sifuna and Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi to step aside and let the residents from Kakamega to address the Ikolomani gold dispute by themselves.
"Mr Vihiga Senator Osotsi, please let Ikolomani residents address the issues of Ikolomani; this also goes to Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna. We are requesting leaders who are not from Kakamega to step aside from this issue," the resident stated.
This has emerged following a meeting the two senators had with elders from the western region on December 11, 2025, where they discussed issues concerning the gold mining in Ikolomani.
The residents questioned the sudden re-emergence of the Luhya elders, blaming them for being silent over issues that happened in the past events in the western region.
"The Webuye sand paper company collapsed yet the elders did not do anything; they have now emerged because they want to extort money from the gold mining project," another resident alleged.
The residents are now calling upon the Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi to intervene in the matter.
"Mudavadi, come to Ikolomani and sit down with the residents and stop leaving this issue to outsiders, come and help the Luhyas," a resident said.
The residents had earlier rejected the handing over of their Ikolomani land to Shanta Gold, a British firm, a move that would relocate an estimated 800 or more households, citing the loss of ancestral land, graves, and cultural heritage.
For decades, Ikolomani residents have been engaging in small-scale, artisanal gold mining as a primary source of income and survival, but they now fear that the large-scale commercial operation will render them jobless.
Residents and local leaders have accused the company and the government of inadequate, secretive, and insufficient public participation and consultation regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the overall project.
Under the Mining Act, the community is entitled to a 10% royalty share of the revenues with the national government taking 70% and the county 20%. However, the locals are sceptical that this formula will translate into tangible benefits for the people whose lives are being disrupted.
