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The world has fully entered an exciting, if not irreversible, stage of mineral-driven energy transition and industrial revolution. The Africa Mining Vision (AMV) and Kenya Vision 2030 are not silent on the mining sector, and they cannot afford to be indifferent to this sector if they are to be realistic and compelling. Africa possesses about 30% of the world’s known hydrocarbon and mineral reserves, with about 60% of the mining enterprises involving gold mining. Concerning economic significance, it has been demonstrated that for every USD generated from mining, at least an additional three USD is generated elsewhere. Again, five more jobs are created elsewhere in the economy for every direct mining employee.
The last time I checked as I was introducing Taita Taveta University’s Mining Freshers to a new unit, Sustainability in Mining, the industries dealing with aerospace research, defence, communication, renewable energy, and medical research were already heavy consumers of minerals such as titanium, platinum group metals, cobalt, coltan, tin, tantalum, tungsten, niobium, indium, and rare earth elements. This exciting promise of minerals for the future of global developments made the faces of the young and future mining engineers glow with enthusiasm, thanking themselves for having chosen to study mining engineering at Taita Taveta University (TTU). The glow was short-lived. A question on the mass unemployment of mining graduates sent me back to the drawing board to convince them otherwise, but the verdict was already out there! I could not encourage them to create jobs because even our most experienced senior engineers are still employed and placing a bet on how many have created meaningful jobs would lead to a sure loss. Ironically, I was also standing there before these students as an employee of the University.
According to the recently reported National Airborne Geophysical Survey results, Kenya is richly endowed with more than 970 minerals. For example, Taita Taveta, where Taita Taveta University (TTU) and Kenya’s premier university of mining is located, is a mineral-rich belt with Tsavorite, a rare gemstone, among other precious stones. This is not to mention its rich stock of medium-grade iron ore in Kishushe, which operates at the level of large-scale commercial exploitation. Manganese, a mineral critical to the steel, glass and chemicals industry, is also found in Taita Taveta. Talking of energy transition, the region has copper and graphite reserves. Industrial and construction minerals in the region include sand, kaolin, mica, wollastonite, and limestone.
The lacklustre performance of the mining sector, contributing barely 1% to the GDP when export minerals are accounted for over the years, is a mainstream paradox in general and in particular, a downright disappointment to the export-led growth strategy envisioned in Kenya Vision 2030 and the target of 10% for the mining sector, which was specified in the Second Medium Term Plan (2013-2017).
Like elsewhere in Africa, Kenya is home to immense natural capital. Where is the problem when it comes to sustainable exploitation and management of natural capital? Is it in human capital, intellectual capital, financial capital, emotional capital, political capital, or …? Is it foreign interference? Poor governance has been pointed out by many scholars as a major setback. Talking of mineral-driven benefits for citizens, successful examples of Trust Funds have been drawn, citing Norway and Nauru. But this does not mean that we need another expensive homecoming party for the new Minister for Mining followed by a benchmarking trip to these countries, the Kenyan style. We know our core problem and its roots and we can choose our battle wisely. No foreigner has denied us the mental faculty and political goodwill to meaningfully engage our local graduates in mining-related disciplines to help transform outcomes, at least locally. Subsidiarity as a principle and systems thinking both challenge us to start from the most local level of transformation and look within for corrective action first. Our mindset is a ready point of call. Can our policymakers start by creating an enabling environment for engaging our well-educated youth meaningfully in employment and skills development, in this case focusing on the mining and geoscience graduates for the mining sector? We have no shortage of graduates in mining, geosciences, and geomatics, e.g., from Taita Taveta University (TTU), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), the University of Nairobi (UoN), Technical University of Kenya (TuK), South-Eastern Kenya University (SEKU), etc.
Technology is critical to the vitality of the modern mining industry. As an early adopter of innovations throughout the evolving Industrial Revolution—now in its 4th phase, known as Industry 4.0—the global large-scale mining industry is already envisioning the Digital Mine within the framework of Mining 4.0 and beyond. This digital future cannot do without technological solutions such as blockchain, automation and robotics, digital twins, and human-machine matching powered by machine learning algorithms. Students and staff from local universities, notably from Taita Taveta University (TTU) under the CEMEREM Project, have been exposed regularly to these hi-tech solutions at the German partner universities in Freiberg (TU Bergakademie Freiberg) and Dresden (HTW-Dresden).
Before all hope was lost, we saw at least some impressive signs as a new team of mining engineering graduates, many of them alumni of Taita Taveta University (TTU), got appointed to the position of Inspector of Mines in the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs. Not to be disputed is the fact that Taita Taveta University has for nearly ten years been the only African centre of excellence for mining, environmental engineering and resource management (CEMEREM). Through the DAAD, TTU has been offering East Africans practice-oriented postgraduate scholarships to study mining as well as environmental engineering and management disciplines. In Kenya, and soon to be in East Africa thanks to CEMEREM, it follows that almost all the most highly qualified graduates of mining are, and will be, products of TTU. Plans to absorb such a human resource meaningfully in the promising mining sector must be any responsible leader’s top priority.
Of course, all we needed as a policy priority was a strong resolve and the will to take up these well-trained youth to be part of the essential workforce we need to transform the mining sector in Kenya. Still, what I have christened the Vicious 8Ds of Mining (land disputes and dispossession, degradation of the environment, deprivation and destitution of the host communities in mining areas, disease, deformity, and death) must be attacked from all corners as these young minds get an opportunity to contribute to the bigger vision of transforming the mining sector. They must be given room and empowered to exercise their knowledge- and technology-led influence to transform this key sector.
Notably, there is a strong message for Hon. Hassan Joho, the newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry in charge of Mining. Before his vetting, Joho published a ten-point plan, many of them directly related to mining. Process digitalisation, enhancement of stakeholder engagement models, and improvement of benefits sharing and community development agreements should appeal to any keen student and researcher in the mining sector as the high-leverage intervention points the Cabinet Secretary must maintain a laser focus on. Reviewing the Mining Act of 2016 must be informed by these key leverage points. Deconcentration of powers and elimination of duplications and overlapping mandates across diverse directorates, improved licensing procedures, among other outcomes, will consequently emerge as derivatives of delivering on these basic pillars of transformation in the mining sector.
Hon. Joho’s ten-point plan above should be evaluated in comparison to the following ten high-leverage points in mining sector governance, which require active public participation and application of data-driven technological solutions, e.g., GIS, Remote Sensing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI): inclusivity, spatial precision, transparency, accountability, predictability, traceability, safety, efficiency, productivity, and environmental sustainability.
Technology is critical to the vitality of the modern mining industry. As an early adopter of innovations throughout the evolving Industrial Revolution—now in its 4th phase, known as Industry 4.0—the global large-scale mining industry is already envisioning the Digital Mine within the framework of Mining 4.0 and beyond. This digital future cannot do without technological solutions such as blockchain, automation and robotics, digital twins, and human-machine matching powered by machine learning algorithms. Students and staff from local universities, notably from Taita Taveta University (TTU) under the CEMEREM Project, have been exposed regularly to these hi-tech solutions at the German partner universities in Freiberg (TU Bergakademie Freiberg) and Dresden (HTW-Dresden).
Finally, there must be a standard, integrated, and data-driven decision support system to guide enforcement, compliance monitoring, and policy development in the Ministry. The lacuna left by silos and fragmented centres of data management and decision-making craves a gap-filling decision support system. The good news is that developing such a system, complete with GIS technology for a comprehensive 3D mining database and cadastre is well within reach because the local human capital – local professionals and students and staff from our local universities, is up to the challenge. At this local level of intervention, we cannot be taken seriously if we continue to decry a lack of capital or blame foreign interference. We can start here and realise encouraging and tangible results by the end of 2027, when the new Cabinet Secretary will hopefully be reporting his final achievements.
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This is the product of more than a decade of dedicated experience in research, skills development, training, and mentorship. Through mentorship and career development fora, IBD empowers youth with the knowledge, international exposure, and digital fluency they need to be emancipated global citizens with borderless influence for sustainable development.
