The Kitui county government has stopped Ndovu Cement Company from mining limestone at Twimuma area in Kyuso, Mwingi North saying the activity is illegal.
Environment executive Patrick Koki Musau wrote to the company saying the mining exercise was being carried out illegally as no laid down protocols were followed.
The county wants the company to follow the mining protocols in line with the requirements of the National Environment Management Authority.
Musau said the company has not conducted any Corporate Social Responsibility, and did not have any permit from the county government.
“The exercise is stopped until the investor liaises with the community liaison committee and follows all set down CSR rules to construct new schools, roads, boreholes among others,” the executive said.
Musau also directed the investor to install a limestone processing plant in the area in order to create job opportunities for locals, other than transporting the mined materials to Nairobi for processing.
Musau urged locals to have a meeting and agree on how much they will sell their parcels of land. They are currently selling an acre at Sh150,000 to the company.
Twimuma development committee chairman Hiram Maluki Kasoni said the community had on several attempts tried to ask local leaders on the protocols of the mining activity but they did not succeed.
“We then wrote a letter to the Ministry of Mining, which directed us to inquire from the county government,” he said.
The mining activity has led to cracks in people’s houses due to the blasting, destruction of schools, dusty environment, noise pollution and other health effects.
Area MCA Stephen Kivunzi Musili said the investor came with a mining license from Nairobi and started blasting, causing environmental harm to the residents.
He said local leaders will not allow any investor to humiliate locals regardless of where they acquired their license from. “They ought to follow all mining regulations,” Musili said.
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