Gem Member of Parliament Elisha Odhiambo has challenged a gold mining company targeting minerals at Ramula in East Gem to carry out adequate public participation before it applies a licence for its activities.

Odhiambo at the same time asked the company, Shanta Gold limited, to factor the mineral reserves underground as it prepares compensation packages for those who will give up their land for prospecting and mining.

Speaking to the press at Ramula after presiding over a church function at the Church of Christ in Africa, the legislator said there was a need for the company to engage the people directly and avoid going through brokers, some of whom are accused of forging signatures to portray an image that the locals were in support of the project.

“For the people of Ramula, it is important that we support the fact that our land is blessed with gold,” he said adding that public engagement must ensure a win-win situation for all.

Odhiambo said the compensation for land must not just be pegged on the current market price but consideration should also be based on the minerals beneath the soil.

“Compensation must take cognisance of the resource that exist underground so that in the long run, Shanta and the people are beneficiaries of the process,” said the legislator.

The legislator’s calls come in the midst of complaints by a section of residents who accused the company of using unorthodox means to coerce them into moving out of the targeted area.

The residents, led by Charles Oduor, Jane Owino and Samuel Nyunja Obimbo are calling on authorities to step in and investigate the documents that the company attached while seeking for a mining licence from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the Ministry of Mining.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Philip Onyango