EAST Africa’s Kenya was rich in coal, gold as well as copper and niobium, but despite the mineral wealth little benefit had trickled down to communities owing to a failure to implement laws written to benefit them.
“The discovery of oil and gas and other natural resources in Kenya was received with enthusiasm and optimism of a great future, not only for the country, but also for the communities” said Reuters citing lawyer Robert Mochache.
“However several years since the discoveries, resource extraction has concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few, aggregating corruption and adverse inequalities, leading to massive environmental degradation and pollution,” he said.
Mochache is also a council member of the legal think-tank the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) to whom he had been speaking on April 12.
Kenya’s extractives industry is at its infancy stage. The ministry of mining was set up five years ago and legislation to regulate the industry passed in 2016. The sector accounts for less than 1% of the country’s gross domestic product, said Reuters.
