Kenyans are not benefitting from gold mined in the country, Mvurya says

Cabinet Secretary nominee for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime affairs Salim Mvurya has said that Kenyans do not benefit from gold mined in the country.

Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on appointments, Mvurya said that the reason the country is not benefiting from gold is because it has not been quantified or checked in terms of quality and miners lack the skills.

“The government must conduct a geological survey to know how much gold we have,” he said.

“We seem to be a country that doesn’t worry about its prosperity. We cannot have a situation where the government doesn’t have data on gold, we rely on the data of private people. It’s important we invest in geo surveys for the entire country,” he added.

He said that the process is already underway which will see the gold mining business help the miners and Kenya at large.

On inland fisheries, Mvurya highlighted that if the government invested in supporting local fishermen, it can raise the income from Sh27 billion to Sh150 billion or even to Sh300 billion.

Additionally, he said the plans he has for inland fisheries is to grow cage fishing so that the country can expand the horizon of fishing in that area.

“We must support local fishermen with storage facilities, a lot of fish goes to waste due to a lack of storage facilities,” he said.

Further, he said that he will digitise the process of getting a licence if the committee approved him for the mining docket.

“…one will get a licence at the click of a button. Digitisation of the licensing process will address the issue of corruption in the Ministry,” he said.