Community in Taita Taveta Kenya seeks halt of iron mining in the area
A community in Taita Taveta in Kenya calling on the government to halt activities at the multimillion-shilling iron ore mines at Kishushe until the company pays all outstanding royalties.
Samrudha Resources have been accused of failure to pay KSh30 million owed to the community as earlier agreed. The royalties have accumulated for three years, and were to be paid by the end of May. Samrudha Resources in February agreed to pay the money to the community in instalments of Sh10 million in two weeks time. The balance was to be paid in four instalments of Sh5 million after every three weeks.
Violation of rights
Out of the Sh30 million, the mining company has only paid Sh8.9 million despite the lapse of the payment period. Residents now want the mining company to remit all the royalties to the community before further extraction.
The community members feel that their rights have been violated and they deserve to benefit from the mining activities in their area. They are also worried that the mining company might abandon the area if the royalties are not paid, leaving them with the negative impacts of the mining activities without any compensation.
“Today, in exercise of the right of assembly, and to make decisions directly on matters that affect us, we resolved that mining activity should stop until full payment of the outstanding Sh21.9 million,” said Kishushe community led by Wundanyi MP Danson Mwashako and Kishushe MCA Newton Kifuso in a meeting.
