 |
| Mining and Blue Economy CS Ali Hassan Joho |
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Environment Forestry and Mining, Joho noted that the sector is mainly flooded with foreign investors who get a huge Return on Investments (R.O.I).
He gave references to Indonesia and China where the investors have amassed billions from the sector.
China and Indonesia are among the major players in the global mining industry with the latter having some of the world’s largest mineral reserves.
On the other hand, China is among the leading countries with mineral productions, acquiring over Ksh.28 trillion in metallic and coal production.
One of the major ways foreign investors capitalise is through spreading their risk across critical mineral markets and hence diversifying their portfolio.
The CS called on the MPs to support his mission to realise a policy framework that would guide the sector.
He laid some strategies to streamline the industry such as enforcing a payment of royalties to foreigners extracting minerals from Kenya.
“The issue of royalties to the affected communities is important here. We have people from outside this country who have been extracting our minerals for over 10 years without paying anything to the communities. We now want this done at the point of loading the cargo,” the CS said.
“Through such rules many young Kenyans will get the opportunity to grow through the sector,” he added.
He added that his Ministry would deploy experts on every border point, accompanied by police officers, to monitor activities and enhance compliance within the sector.
Joho also said that the Committee ought to consider touring Tanzania to assess their achievements in the industry.