New Delhi: A goat herder looking for a missing animal stumbled upon something far more valuable and within weeks, thousands of people had descended on his remote Kenyan village, tearing into the earth in search of gold.
Manasse Lomachar, 33, found three grams of the precious metal while joining women panning along a seasonal riverbed near Cheporor in western Kenya. He sold the find for 36,000 Kenyan shillings (approx Rs 26,600), a discovery he says helped set off the frenzy.
What was bushland and rough grazing ground just weeks ago is now a sprawling informal mining site, dotted with deep pits, piles of freshly dug earth and makeshift camps.
Local authorities estimate that the number of prospectors peaked at around 10,000, as people arrived from across Kenya and neighbouring Uganda. The residents of the region reportedly rely on farming income and they complain about not being able to make ends meet. Even a small amount of gold could change lives. The rush has since eased, with officials estimating that around 2,500 people remain at the site, searching in vain.
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Hope, desperation, gold
After news of Lomachar’s discovery spread several weeks ago, thousands of people from neighbouring villages arrived in Cheporor, hoping to try their luck. The rumour mill at times escalated the nature of Lomachar’s find, making people hopeful.
“Young men found what appeared to be a substantial amount of gold. The following day, women made another significant discovery in the same area,” Samuel Kiarie, the deputy commissioner of West Pokot County, told the BBC. He added that the women finding gold is not something new. They have been finding small quantities of alluvial gold along the same seasonal riverbed for years, earning $8-$23 a week.
But it was Lomachar’s discovery that rekindled something older than memory—that the ground itself might give them a way out. People were driven to Cheporor out of desperation.
“I have children in school, and paying school fees has been a big problem for me,” said Patrick Lokolia, from the neighbouring village of Napawoi, who told the BBC. She was one of the many people digging the ground.
Many of those who flocked to the site had no mining experience at all, but they came anyway, hoping for Lomchar’s luck. Eighteen-year-old Abigael Chelengat was another hopeful, having arrived from a nearby district. She hoped to find enough gold to pay her school fees and keep her younger siblings in school.
But for many, the gold rush has created opportunities in adversity. More than 200 businesses have sprung up around the site, selling food, water and other essentials to the diggers occupying the site. Irene Ameja, a resident of the neighbouring Baringo County, came to Cheporor to cater to the crowd, selling bottled water, soft drinks, milk, bread and other foodstuffs. Traders in the area report buying gold from a hundred sellers, even if the amounts remain modest.
Officials have raised concern about the safety of women and young girls on the site; many worry that children too will be drawn into gold mining. But for the families who came to Cheporor with nothing, hope is an arithmetic worth doing.
“We can’t return unless we find something. Only when we have found what we need can we go back home,” said Mughisa Godfreyan, an artisanal miner from Busia in eastern Uganda.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)