To empower artisanal miners and mining communities, PS Mining Elijah Mwangi joined CS Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Hon. Salim Mvurya, and Ministry of Tourism CS Dr. Alfred Mutua in Taita-Taveta to establish a task force to explore the opening up Tsavo for controlled and regulated mining.

This historic move will see artisanal miners granted access to the protected area. County leaders present were Governor Mwadime, Senator Mwaru, Women Rep Hon Haika, MPs Danson Mwashako (Wundanyi), Peter Shake, (Mwatate), Abdi Chome, (Voi) and John Bwire, Taveta.

The task force is expected to map out areas to be delineated for miners, modalities of protecting the park’s biodiversity, and establish post-mining rehabilitation plans amongst others.

The team has 14 days to come up with proposals that will beef up the final framework.

Representatives from KWS Kenya, Taita Taveta National Assembly, artisanal miners drawn from the four sub-counties, and National Government Administrative Officials are members of the task force.

The framework will also provide further guidelines on safety issues including access to the park, miners’ identities, and types of minerals to allow for support from other stakeholders like park management.

This task force is set to entrench the culture of benefit sharing between the national government, counties, artisanal miners, and local communities in areas endowed with significant mineral resources.

This complies with a presidential directive that ordered the formation of a team to explore ways of granting hustler miners access to the Tsavo.