Nairobi, July 29 – Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho has pulled the plug on a major cement company\u2019s mining activities in the Kilifi-Kaloleni region, leaving hundreds of workers facing uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking during a public forum, Joho revealed that the shutdown was triggered by the company\u2019s continued operations without proper mining licenses\u2014despite being issued several warnings by both county and national authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To tighten oversight, the CS also instructed Mining Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai to initiate the formation of local monitoring committees. These committees will be tasked with ensuring all mining operations comply with legal and environmental standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI came to Kilifi to follow up on what we had agreed with the company\u2014and clearly, nothing has been done. The first step is to set up a proper committee to keep things in check,\u201d Joho said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung\u2019aro echoed Joho\u2019s concerns, saying the mining site had been damaging the environment and endangering locals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m very disappointed. The community here has long raised concerns about this mine. It\u2019s harming more than helping the people of this region,\u201d the governor stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This closure aligns with the ministry\u2019s wider crackdown on illegal mining nationwide. Just weeks earlier, on June 9, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) shut down over 200 gold mining sites in Turkana County over similar concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEMA reported that these sites\u2014located in the Kambi Karai and Lami Nyeusi areas along the River Turkwel\u2014were operating without the legally required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) licenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents had complained about environmental degradation, citing deep open pits and contaminated water that rendered the river unsafe for household use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement, NEMA confirmed the immediate suspension of all mining operations in the affected regions.
\u201cThese mining activities have resulted in serious environmental harm,\u201d said the agency. \u201cNone of the more than 200 gold mining sites have EIA licenses. The pollution they cause makes the river water unfit for domestic use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEMA added that it would conduct a full inspection of the sites to evaluate compliance and determine further action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nairobi, July 29 – Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho has pulled the plug on a major cement company\u2019s mining activities in the Kilifi-Kaloleni region, leaving hundreds of workers facing uncertainty. Speaking during a public forum, Joho revealed that the shutdown was triggered by the company\u2019s continued operations without proper mining licenses\u2014despite being issued several warnings by both county and national authorities. To tighten oversight, the CS also instructed Mining Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai to initiate the formation of local monitoring committees. These committees will be tasked with ensuring all mining operations comply with legal and environmental standards. \u201cI came to Kilifi to follow up on what we had agreed with the company\u2014and clearly, nothing has been done. The first step is to set up a proper committee to keep things in check,\u201d Joho said. Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung\u2019aro echoed Joho\u2019s concerns, saying the mining site had been damaging the environment and endangering locals. \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed. The community here has long raised concerns about this mine. It\u2019s harming more than helping the people of this region,\u201d the governor stated. This closure aligns with the ministry\u2019s wider crackdown on illegal mining nationwide. Just weeks earlier, on June 9, the National Environment …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3342,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340\/revisions\/3342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}