Hassan Joho inspecting the minerals that were discovered
* Discovers a cache of illegally mined minerals worth millions of US$ (Sh200 million)
* Some of the minerals confiscated are used in the manufacture of car batteries and spectrometers for detecting minerals that are radioactive
* “These are high-value minerals which we are not getting anything from”
By Duncan Mlanjira
In a style like that of Malawi’s Minister of Labour Vitumbiko Mumba, Kenyan Minister of Mining, Hassan Joho led a raid on an illegal mineral dealership in a residential estate in Nairobi where sacks containing iron ore, copper, zinc and lead worth over Sh200 million were discovered and confiscated.
Advertisement
According to reports by Kenyan online media platform, The Star and Eastleigh Voice, three Chinese nationals and a Kenyan were arrested during the raid.
“They have been evading paying taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority and stolen from us. We are not getting anything,” Joho is quoted as saying by The Star, which indicated that some of the minerals confiscated are used in the manufacture of car batteries.
Also confiscated was a spectrometer for detecting minerals that are radioactive and easy to detect minerals deep in the soil: “These are high-value minerals which we are not getting anything from,” Joho is quoted as saying.
The report says the raid comes barely three weeks after Joho launched an investigative arm in the ministry and that in April last year, the Kenyan government deployed a special police unit to tackle widespread illegal exploration and mining of minerals.
The Kenyan mining police unit is mandated to pursue miners, prospectors, and dealers violating the industry law and regulations.
Weather update
Joho is quoted as saying “minerals are resources that belong to the Kenyan people not only for today but for future generations. When minerals are stolen, they are gone for good.
“I want to ensure that we have teams in place to ensure the law is followed. I also want to assure players in the industry that the ministry is here to offer support as long as you do the right thing.”
Perhaps, a creation of an enforcement task force in Malawi, like the Kenyan special police unit, can also tackle widespread suspicions of illegal mining exploration in the country.
They say there is no smoke without fire and definitely the reports that that they are some illegal exploration and mining of minerals in Malawi should be taken seriously like the Kenyan authorities have done, taking cognizance that there has been a huge proliferation of foreign nationals such as the Chinese, who are operating businesses that are suspected to be just a pretext.
The case in point is the Chinese national, Xu Hongxiang, whose warehouse in Lilongwe, that supposed to have been facilitated to him for legitimate business, was turned into a facility to store stolen goods — vandalised Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) assets.
It was disheartening last week when ESCOM reported the involvement of the Chinese national as being part of the syndicate of stealing public assets alongside Malawian — three of whom he was arrested alongside with; Eliko Frackson, Frezer Crement and Yamala Lameck.
It followed a tip of illegal activities at the Chinese national’s warehouse where upon a police and ESCOM security raid, 40 bags of stolen of copper wires were recovered, approximately weighing 18 tonnes.
The Chinese national and his Malawian accomplices with the haul of ESCOM copper wires
Xu Hongxiang warehouse
Upon interrogation, the Malawian accomplices revealed Xu Hongxiang was buying the wires at K15,000 per kilogramme and with over 18 tonnes of the confiscated goods, the Chinese national was to going to make a huge fortunes — that also goes with a substantial financial loss to ESCOM.
Labour Minister Mumba is also on a similar campaign like that of Kenyan Joho and in his raids of companies of supposedly-needed foreign investors, he discovered they were flouting the country’s labour laws exposing employees to high risk workplace danger.
Alongside Ministry of Labour, the Trade Ministry — through Malawi Bureau of Standard (MBS) and Competition & Fair Trade Commission (CFTC) — were on surprise visits of shops where they discovered gross abuse of unhygiene, rotten and expired food stuffs, overpricing of goods, among others.
Most of these shops are not owned by indigenous Malawians, meaning somewhere, a warehouse might be licensed to be keeping goods applied for but might be storing minerals.
It’s just some food for thought because in Kenya, the warehouse that was raid was situated at a residential area — and who knows, some of the so-called investors might also have the same hand-held spectrometer for detecting minerals that are radioactive and easy to detect minerals deep in the soil.
Rural Malawians wouldn’t even give such a gadget a second glance, which is exactly how it went undetected in Kenya for a while.
The hand-held radioactive spectrometer