Kakamega’s gold belt holds no glitter for impoverished miners

Zachaues wa James walks into his dilapidated house which he shares with his wife and their seven young children to get us the piece of gold that he has kept for decades. It is the only piece of evidence he has to show that he works in a gold belt and is not willing to part with it.

In the sitting room, the children are either jumping or chatting as they wait for their mother to prepare their breakfast. Though Mr Wa James, who lives in Rosterman village in Kakamega County, has been an artisan gold miner for more than two decades there is no glitter on his face. Instead, he is ailing.

He is among rural-based artisanal gold miners in the world who use unhealthy procedures to extract approximately 25 per cent of the world’s gold. The sector has an estimated 10-15 million miners.

In Kakamega, an area which sparked a major gold-rush in 1930s, villagers have for years been scouring the abandoned mines in search of the elusive mineral. Sometimes, they are lucky.

Mr Wa James, like his other age-mates, went to the mining belts when he was 16. Today, twenty-two years later, he still hopes that one day, he will become rich and change his life forever. “When you see us here every morning searching for gold, we have faith that one day we might succeed to get what will change our lives even if we are brought down by diseases,” he says.

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has been urging governments to set up structures to reduce the level of mercury, a toxic metal used by the miners to extract gold, and also to improve the hygienic conditions in the mines.

Globally, the miners remain a major source of mercury pollution in the areas they operate and most of them risk their lives in an unregulated black market that accounts for up to a quarter of the world’s gold. Apart from mercury, the miners are exposed to other hazards.

As young miner, Mr Wa James worked as a rock driller, a job that exposes most of the workers to hazardous and uncomfortable conditions on the mine. The act of drilling produces large quantities of dust. They also suffer cuts, skin infections and respiratory illnesses.

Besides working in unhygienic conditions, they have abandoned any social life to be at the mines. Mr Wa James and his colleagues do not also have such luxury. They spend more than 11 hours each day in the scorching sun searching for the precious mineral.

“I have never known how to socialise, most of my time is spent at the site busy digging and washing stones with the hope that I will strike it rich soon,” he said.

His life, like that of other miners is a sorry tale. Mr Wa James gets to the digging site at 8 am from Monday to Saturday. He is part of a group of five with different roles. While some dig for gold, the rest concentrate on the washing until 3 pm.

The soil is put in a basin which has a sieve underneath. The miners pour the water as they keenly look for the gold particles which to them are easy to detect.

They then pour a drop of mercury on to the soil for easy detection of the metal. The stones are then dried and taken to a grinding machine situated two kilometres away. After grinding, the powder is passed through several stages of washing to separate gold particles from the dust.

They then add mercury to the metal and wait for middle-men who come from as from far as Nairobi to the site every evening to buy the commodity. They are paid Sh100 for 0.1 grammes of gold, and Sh1,000 for a grammes of the mineral. The money is then divided amongst his team of five men.

“Many people think that we have a lot of money, this business has no money but we stick to it because we do not have anything else to depend on,” he says.

For working in such conditions, Mr Wa James is now sickly. Although he is still able to provide for his family, he can no longer work as hard as he used to. After three years of working underground, he started experiencing a tightness in his chest and was diagnosed with a lung disease—silicosis, as a result of his exposure to the dust underground .

“When I tried coughing, I could experience a lot of pain and dryness but I did not stop going to the site because I needed the money to take care of my family,” he said.

Underground gold miners have been found to develop serious cases of silicosis and in South Africa some miners went to court to demand compensation. But artisanal miners have no recourse.

“When we drill using the machine, there is a lot of pressure with smoke and dust that comes from the machine and rocks. The smoke makes a cloud, and we inhale it. This is what caused the problem in my lungs,” says Mr Wa James who has stuck to mining though he no longer works underground because of the pain in his chest.

He is not alone. Protos Embova, 39, lives in a deplorable state. Forced by poverty to the mines, Mr Embova had initially wanted to seek employment in Nairobi. He failed and joined the multitude of his age-mates seeking their fortune in dangerous underground mines. His initial assignment was to dig the soil and detect the location of the mineral.

After three years working in the pits, he also started getting sick. “When it rains, we step on stagnant water and this comes with several diseases like pneumonia and bilharzia,” he says.

He was once hospitalised for a month suffering from pneumonia. Mr Embova who spoke at the mining site said he was later diagnosed with a lung problem after the pneumonia attack, .

“I have been having trouble with my chest and lungs since then,” he says. “When I went to the hospital, the doctor said my chest had dust and instructed that I get myself a dust mask which is very expensive.”

Even though Mr Embova was diagnosed with the diseases, he is not ready to stop mining. “This is where I get my children’s school fees, it would be very difficult for me and my family if I abandon this work,” he says.

Mr Embova and Mr Wa James represent many miners in the country who suffer in silence. They however said that they would be more successful if they are given the appropriate equipment to drill the metal. “Most of the times we dig the soil using jembes (hoes) and it’s very tiring,” he said.

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