Over 8,000 alluvial miners -both Karimojong and non Karimojong- in Chepkararat village of Lokales sub county in Amudat district in Karamoja region are living in fear following a suspected move by a mining company to evict them. However the mining company visible in the area has disassociated itself from any move to evict the local miners.
Peter Kibet a 29 year old is a young gold miner in Chepkarata and he told URN that gold mining is the only source of income for his family and his friends and that evicting them would have catastrophic consequences to their life.
“We have heard of plans by the company to do rock blasting within our areas of residence and we don’t know who is allowing them,” he said.
Joyce Ruto, another alluvial miner and a mother of 9 children, said there is growing uncertainty whether they will be allowed to mine once the said starts rock blasting.
Moses Magola, another miner claims that soldiers have heavily been deployed to guard the foreign miners staying in the camp, yet previously they were being guarded policemen.
“What has made us smell a rat is the heavy deployment of soldiers to guard the foreigners working for the company,” he said.
Kibet and Ruto are not alone, there are over 8,000 other alluvial miners who have have been gripped with fear over suspected plans to evict them.
The miners went ahead and petitioned the resident district commissioner for Amudat who has since tried to intervene by stopping any planned rock blasting. However, URN has learnt that the presure which is coming from so called top leaders from governmnet are making the RDC also to slow down.
Speaking to URN, the Amudat RDC, Major (Rtd) Betty Akello, confirmed stopping the investor from carrying out rock blasting until the necessary steps are taken.
“They want to blast the rock, without any permission from the ministry of energy and minerals and it is also not clearly stipulated where the community will be in all this, so as the district security chairperson, there are certain steps to be taken,” she said.
But Rogers Okello, the co director of Ever Grandy Resource Limited which is the company the locals are suspecting of plotting to evict them, said his company has never thought of evicting the local miners.
“We can’t do without arsenal miners, so whoever is talking of my company planning to evict miners has something else against my company,” he said.
Micha Lolem Akathile, the member of parliament for Upe county, says he will raise the issue on the floor of parliament as a matter of national importance so that the ministry of minerals can come clean on the matter.
He said many people including reformed cattle rustlers are now surviving from gold mining adding that any plan to evict them will again resurrect insecurity in the region.
–URN
