It has been a long wait but finally, residents of Kwale County are all set to benefit from millions in form of royalties by mining firm Base Titanium which operates in the area.
Currently, the national government through Mining ministry is finalizing talks on the disbursement of the funds to the county and locals.
According to Mining CS John Munyes, a special committee from his ministry and National Treasury had been formed and working on how the royalties will be distributed.
“I have had these arguments for years that we must release the funds. In the next two weeks we will be working with the treasury to get a framework for the county government receiving the money,” he said in Kwale.
The CS said that afterwards, thousands of locals in Kwale will be able to see the long-waited benefits of mining in the area.
“We are putting a lot of pressure on that because it is the National Treasury that is supposed to send us the money to be disbursed to locals and county governments,” he explained.
One of its requirement since its inception in 2016, was that Base Titanium was supposed to cede to the government part of its annual revenues after tax deduction.
Through that arrangement, the government was supposed to get 70 per cent, county government, 30 and locals to get 10 per cent of its annual revenue.
Although the locals have waited for about seven years, the long wait is finally coming to an end and soon, they will see the fruits of their work.
Msambweni Community Development Agreement Committee (CDAC) chairperson Mshenga Ruga complained of the long period of time the government has taken to remit the money to locals urging authorities to use the recently made agreement committees as a channel to distribute the funds.
“The government has been getting this money since 2016 and we would like this cash to reach to us also. They claim the delay was caused by lack of structures pitting the locals and the county government. But the CDACs have been formed, I believe these are the right structures for the cash to be channeled on behalf of the community,” he said.
Last week, the mining firm signed a Sh200 million agreement with locals, in a separate fund that will see the locals in Msambweni, Lungalunga and Likoni sub counties get the money to put it into development projects of their choice.
CS Munya presided over the event and lauded the move as one of its best and that it will help avert unnecessary conflicts associated with mining ventures.
For years, there has been resistance from the locals over plans by the firm to expand its activities.
The disbursement of royalties is expected to increase possibilities of locals agreeing to give out some of their lands to be exploited by the company.
