By Norah Musega
museganorah@gmail.com
Leaders and the community around Migori County have urged the National Government to review laws governing the mining sector in the country to curb frequent loss of lives in the mining sites.
Led by Governor Zachary Okoth Obado who blamed the government for lack of proper law enforcement on gold extraction, citing it as the reason for continuous accidents, and adding that they now want the government to move fast to ensure safety of the miners is keenly checked.
“We continue to experience such accidents in our gold mining sites across the county due to failure by the national government to ensure they enforce proper laws governing the activity as a source of income for those actively involved in the business,” said Obado.
While speaking at Kopuodho mining site in Rongo Sub-county hours after rescuing Noah Ogweno, a miner who was trapped after the site collapsed, Obado said it is the sole responsibility of the national government to govern the mining sector adding that it is a source of income to many jobless youths in Migori County.
He also encouraged leaders to put efforts towards supporting mining activities especially those that are owned by small scale miners to improve their well-being and safety.
“I wish to challenge my fellow leaders to put efforts together towards the fight for our brothers and sisters working in the mining sites and to ensure we save more lives through the fight. We should also ensure that we support the miners in whatever way possible to ensure they grow financially through this business,” he added.
Mining is a major income generating activity in Migori across all the eight Sub-counties and has led to frequent loss of lives in the past one year despite calls by several leaders including Nyatike Member of Parliament Tom Odege, human rights organizations being among them.
Ogweno was fortunate enough when he was rescued alive after 72 hours. The rescue mission was led by the Rongo Constituency Member of Parliament Hon. Paul Abuor who provided excavators and the county Senator Ochilo Ayacko who provided fuel for the excavators and food for those who were working tirelessly towards Ogwenos’ rescue, an exercise that took three days.
