Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki on early Monday morning ordered the closure of all small illegal artisanal mining sites across the country.
The CS while issuing the statement from Migori County further ordered the immediate closure of all unlicensed commercial mining operations.
CS Kindiki announced that not only were the mining sites operating without proper registration, but they were also posing risks to Kenyans.
He highlighted that in the last week, two Kenyans had died in an illegal mining site in Nyatike, Migori County.
Still in Migori County, four other people lost their lives two months ago at a mining site in the Sango area.
“To ensure regularised artisanal mining that meets public safety and environmental standards, the Government has banned all artisanal mining activities as well as unlicensed commercial mining,” a statement from the CS read in part.
“The Migori County Security and Intelligence Committee (CSIC) is directed to enforce this directive immediately.”
On Friday, March 22, Mining CS Salim Mvurya ordered the ban stating that local and international investors were operating against the law.
Speaking in Athi River National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) during the launch of Artisanal Miners Cooperatives, Mvurya vowed the ban would not be lifted until the sector was streamlined.
Licences for small-scale miners are issued by County Mining Committees while large-scale exploration is okayed by the Ministry of Mining.
Small-scale mining is predominant in the Western and Nyanza regions due to large deposits of gold.
Additionally, there are huge deposits of gemstones in Taita Taveta County in the Coastal Region making mining one of the main economic activities.
According to CS Mvurya, there are at least 960 different deposits of minerals countrywide with the sector employing over one million Kenyans.
