Gold rush in western Kenya: Miners risk health and safety in Kakamega county

FRANCE 24 English

Miners in Kenya risk their lives every day to extract gold 30 meters below the Earth's surface. With the recent gold rush in the country, artisanal mining is raising concerns over negative environmental consequences and poor labor conditions. Our colleagues at France Télévisions Lucile Chaussoy, Fabien Fougère, and Joseph Bohbot and France 24's Florent Marchais have this report.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00A small nugget of gold.

00:12In the west of Kenya, a new generation of miners is willing to take massive risks to find them.

00:19Each morning, men from Kakamega County set out to work in artisanal mines.

00:25Before descending, the leader of this group of miners gives safety instructions.

00:33He's worried for the new recruits.

00:46They work in an old British gold mine that was abandoned after Kenya's independence.

00:52Now, a Kenyan owner has taken over operations at the site.

00:56It reaches more than 30 meters underground.

00:59You have to watch where you step.

01:05There are rocks, pipes and electrical cables.

01:08The miners plunge into the darkness, armed only with their headlamps.

01:14They have no protective gear.

01:17They continue to walk in more than a meter of water, trying to avoid electrocution.

01:21The material we want, which we get gold from them, is this line.

01:29I don't know if you can see the line.

01:31The working is very dangerous.

01:33Like, after blasting, we get the areas where the rock is very weak.

01:40The men dig all day without seeing a single nugget.

01:48For hours, they take shifts in the dark to fill bags with quartz, hoping to spot some gold.

01:57They have very little oxygen.

01:59Despite the risks, they don't hesitate to work in the mine.

02:13Only a few months ago, they were cooks, farmers or bricklayers, like Dennis.

02:18When I was a bricklayer, I earned three euros a day.

02:22Here in the mine, I can earn 30 euros, or even more.

02:27A gold rush has transformed the landscape of the region.

02:31Artisanal mining is making the land more fragile.

02:34On the surface, women take up the next set of tasks.

02:39Marceline was a teacher.

02:42And Theresa, a shopkeeper.

02:45Now, they spend all day sieving out impurities from pay dirt.

02:49I am processing this soil that I have brought from the mining.

02:55The cold will remain on these rocks.

02:57Because that cold is strong.

02:59If the soil is light, it moves with water.

03:02I will rinse these rocks and keep the cold.

03:07Timothy Mukoshi, the county's mining union representative, visits the site.

03:13He's supposed to officially register the workers and ensure their safety.

03:16The number of people has tripled in the mining fields.

03:22There are quite a lot of issues linked to the miners.

03:25For example, the issue of environmental degradation.

03:29The issue of hazardous chemicals, e.g. mercury.

03:34And also the key issue is the lack of mining technology.

03:42Most workers are not officially registered.

03:44They sell their gold to wholesalers in the city who prefer to remain anonymous.

03:49Since the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the price of gold has skyrocketed.

03:55We do this every day.

03:57It can be 5, 10 or 20 grams.

04:00We heat it for 20 minutes, then remove it and pour it here.

04:05The gold is then sold abroad.

04:07Once melted down, it is difficult to trace its origin and determine the conditions under which it was mined.

04:1430 tons of gold reportedly remain in the region's subsoil.

04:18And more than 5,000 people have taken up artisanal mining here in recent years.

04:23It's an economic sector Kenya still struggles to regulate.

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