2013 - Jacob Juma announces the discovery of minerals at Mrima Hills in Kwale by Cortec (A Canadian Mining and Prospecting Company). He accuses Balala (CS of mining at the time) of asking for a bribe (80 million). Juma allegedly refuses to be extorted and the minister threatens to cancel the mining/exploration license. Juma appears to have been a frontman (fixer) for the Canadian investors. The Canadians had been granted a mining and prospecting license in 2008 and 3 years later discovered that the mine had larger deposits than they had estimated initially.
2013 - High Court revokes the mining license of Cortec
2015 - Government takes over “exploration” of minerals at Mrima Hills "The government has announced that no private firm or individual will be allowed to explore minerals at Mrima Hills in Kwale county. "
2016 - The Standard Newspaper links the Ruto-Juma fallout to the mining deal at Mrima Hills. Later, on KTN, Jirongo claims Juma slapped Ruto.
2016 - Juma is murdered.
Estimated value of niobium deposits at Mrima Hill was over $100 billion. For perspective, Kenya’s current GDP is about $100 billion. You can join the dots.
Upus… Juma was a thug and the 100 billion usd value was an exaggeration.
100 billion usd in mineral value would have attracted all the world’s top vultures.
I’m just reporting what I gathered from the online sources. I tried to join the pieces. I think Juma was a frontman or “fixer” for the Canadians and some fat cats in government wanted a piece of the action. He was getting in the way so he got clipped. The Canadians got their exploration and prospecting licenses in 2008 and those licenses were cancelled immediately after they made the huge discoveries. I think that’s why foreign companies view investing in Africa as an extreme sport.
You invest heavily and when your gamble pays off, the license is withdrawn and the mine is “nationalized” two years later.
You can’t mine at that scale without people noticing. Plus dunderheads at GOK don’t have the ability to run such a scheme. They can’t even effectively run basic infrastructure.
When Jambazi wins the election, 10 minutes after the swearing in ceremony atakuwa statehouse plotting how to privatize that mine.
That’s how Russian Oligarchs got rich in the 1990s. The state privatized national oil wells and mines. Well-connected people (today’s oligarchs) bought the wells and mines at throw-away prices.
With deposits valued at $100 billion, you can be certain that is his #1 agenda.
Maze, if it’s true then he was a fool of the highest order. Hata mimi babangu hajawahi ni-slap, ghaseer ingine ikifanya hivo naeza ishikia grudge vibaya sana. Afadhali mtu ata akupige mangumi lakini slap huwa madharau.
The point is that there is serious money involved, that’s why fat cats were interested. By the way, that’s what the press reported, including Juma himself.
Obviously, I know the press can be wrong, but the general idea is that there is a lot of money involved in that mining deal.
Sounds interesting, mimi nataka kuja kuinvest kwa Mui Coal Basin JSKS akiingia second term. For now wacha tuchape minimum wage jobs tukistack hizi dollar mbili tatu tunapewa as tips. Haba na haba hujaza kibaba.
9 years later, are the mines functional. It doesn’t take but 2 months to get a mine running. It’s not like oil production. Something tells me those mine figures are aesops fables.
Also the real reason that mining license was cancelled is the mining company had no capital. Their paperwork revealed weak financial positions. It’s like they were a mum and pop company trying to strike it rich.