While gold promises wealth, it silently steals health and pollutes the environment. Women and girls in Ikolomani bear the heaviest toll, exposed daily to toxic mercury. Urgent action is needed to regulate artisanal mining, protect communities, and restore ecosystems before this golden opportunity becomes a public health disaster
By Girls to Women Organization Team
Introduction: Mercury Pollution on Health and Environment of Women and Girls in the gold mining Areas of Kakamega, Kenya
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of anthropogenic mercury releases, posing a severe threat to the health and environment of goldmining communities, with women and girls bearing the brunt.
Globally, excessive mercury is harmful to human health and the environment, according to World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports on chronic mercury exposure and environmental pollution. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining using mercury occurs at significant levels in most goldmining sites in Kakamega, Kenya. http://• UNEP- UN Environment Programme (2017). Chemicals and Pollution Action. https://share.google/sHgbDUEKf1JrCFQd5
The mining sector is largely informal, hampering effective interventions to promote sustainable gold mining practices. Mercury exposure occurs through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact with different mercury compounds.
Local goldmining in Kakamega County covers Kwisero, Butere, Shinyalu, Lurambi (Rosterman area), and Ikolomani sub-counties, including Bushiangala, Isulu, Sigalagala, and Malinya local goldmining areas. Mercury exposure, therefore, contributes to a silent crisis that disproportionately affects the health of women and girls and the surrounding environment.
Most women and girls depend entirely on mining for their livelihoods, exposing them to mercury during gold extraction. Many women spend long hours washing ore with mercury without protective gear. Women and girls bear the devastating health impacts: WHO reports that prolonged exposure to mercury causes memory loss, tremors, and, for pregnant women, increased risks of miscarriage and congenital neurological disorders.
Research and ongoing engagements conducted in Ikolomani local goldmining areas indicate that women and girls experience miscarriages, stillbirths, tremors, and immune system damage. Locally, some report shaking, tingling, and numbness in their hands, swelling, blurred vision, body tremors, and eyesight loss. http://• IPEN & CEJAD (2021), Mercury in Women of Child-Bearing Age in ASGM Communities in Kenya
Continuous mercury exposure leads to severe health and environmental consequences, with approximately 90% accumulating in the environment, contaminating water sources such as rivers and rendering them unfit for human consumption. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin released from human gold mining activities.
There is inadequate data on the health and environmental impacts of ASGM due to inconsistent monitoring, which hinders effective planning and investment in minimizing risks in the gold mining sector. The gold mining community also has minimal knowledge of mercury’s effects on their health and the environment.
Findings from the research
Ikolomani sub-county in Kakamega has been synonymous with gold since colonial times, with artisanal goldmining extending across Kakamega, the Lirhanda corridor, Vihiga, Siaya, Busia, and other counties. An East Africa-based company recently announced fresh discoveries worth USD 2.01 billion along the Kakamega-Busia gold belt, underscoring the region’s economic potential.
The ASGM sector has grown rapidly over the past 50 years in low- and middle-income countries, including Kenya (World Bank, 2009). In 1999, close to 2 million people were directly engaged in mining.
By 2019, this population had grown to over 10 million, with over 20 million people supporting the livelihoods of more than 100 million globally (World Gold Council, 2022). The increasing population of ASGM workers in local goldmining sites has raised serious health and environmental concerns due to the use of life-threatening toxic chemicals. http://• WHO, Mercury and Health (2023) – (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mercury-and-health)
Local artisanal gold miners comprise approximately 62% women and girls, while men account for 38%, according to recent statistics. More than 60% of households in Ikolomani depend on goldmining, despite the sector contributing less than 1% of Kenya’s GDP. Around 250,000 artisanal and small-scale miners work in Kakamega’s mining sites, with 200–300 women miners active daily at each site.
A silent public health and environmental crisis persists in Kakamega’s goldmines. Most miners, especially women and girls, work informally without protective gear. Statistics indicate that 90% of women and girls are involved in gold processing, while men primarily dig the ore and only account for 10% of washing activities.
Women and girls spend much of their time washing ore with bare hands, relying on mercury to separate gold from impurities such as metals, silica, and clay particles—a toxic process harmful to both health and the ecosystem. Mercury forms an amalgam, which is then heated; mercury vapor is released into the environment while gold remains behind.
Mercury vapor released during gold burning contributes to environmental pollution, including air pollution, with far-reaching climate change implications as toxic emissions accumulate. The Kenya Ministry of Environment estimates that artisanal miners release over 15 tons of mercury annually into rivers and soils, contaminating the environment. ASGM has negative impacts on biodiversity and terrestrial ecosystems, undermining Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 15. http://• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38653024/
Unsustainable mining practices, such as open or abandoned shafts, eroded landscapes, removal of topsoil, tailing piles, and deforestation, accelerate land and environmental degradation. Women and girls often lack alternative agricultural production opportunities, as nutrient-depleted soils hinder crop production and minimal environmental restoration efforts exacerbate climate change effects.
Local goldmining remains largely informal and unregulated, with slow progress toward formalization. Despite Kenya being a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty to phase out mercury enforcement still remains slow. http://• Minamata Convention on Mercury, UNEP (https://minamataconvention.org/en)…. (https://www.unep.org/resources/report/minamata-convention-mercury?)
Policy Recommendations to the State Department of Mining, NEMA, Ministry of Health, ministry of water environment natural resources and climate change, County Mining committee and ASGM Leaders
- Accelerate the Formalization of the Artisanal Miners with Gender-Inclusive Policies to ensure equal access to land and Promotion of mercury Free alternatives such as use of silver coated copper plates to decontaminate the tailings, adopting wet millings techniques that eliminate the exposure of mercury, silica dust and practice selective membrane materials to replace mercury in the gold extraction process.
- Enhance implementation of occupational health and safety measures in promotion of Mercury replacement methods among the artisanal gold mining sector to improve working conditions of women and girls in reducing mercury pollution.
- Increase the number of capacity building training to the artisanal gold mining community on mercury free gold extraction methods, embracing new technology with safe and sustainable Mining practices.
- Strengthen implementation of both local and national implementation plans and develop guidelines working jointly with the local Mining leaders and the county Governments to align with Minamata convention of mercury prevention.
- Develop a legal framework that will cater for the safety of Artisanal Miners and safeguard the rights of women and girls in the Local Goldmines.
- Enhance capacity for compliance with Environment legislation for sustainable Mining together with Environmental Management standards.
- County Government of Kakamega to strengthen alternative sustainable livelihood options for women and girls in the gold mining community to reduce economic vulnerability. The Government to strengthen implementation of Mandatory Safety standards with correct proper protective equipment’s (PPE) with health monitoring for Miners.
- Enforce Regulations working closely with the government and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and align practices with the Global Treaty of Minamata Convention on Mercury.
Policy Recommendations for CBOs, NGOs, INGOs, WHRDs, EWHRDs and ASGM Leaders
- Civil society organizations to prioritize resources and implement targeted health education and training programs for women and girls’ miners and communities on the dangers of mercury exposure and available protective measures.
- CSOs to establish Environment and Health Monitoring committees to monitor, track and report Mercury use to improve DATA and provide appropriate referrals for the affected community members.
- Track Mercury levels and inform intervention levels through research, monitoring and assessing Environmental impact on Mercury use in the goldmines.
- Provide integrated training of state and non-state actors: Provide integrated training of state and non-state actors on safe mining practices to increase their collaborative skills to effectively promote sustainable mining practices.
- Influence development of legal framework that will cater for the safety of Artisanal Miners and safeguard the rights of women and girls in the Local Goldmines.
- Strengthen the formulated Artisanal and small-scale Gold Mining Cooperatives and Saccos to enhance safe and sustainable gold mining practices including procurement of Mercury Free Technology within the Gold Mining sites to safeguard the rights of women and girls in the goldmines.
Recommendation on Data Collection in the Gold Mines of Kakamega
- Research team to ensure Evidence- based advocacy to inform decision making on policy changes and allocation of resources for sustainable Gold Mining practices.
- Government, Mining leaders, Goldmining community and CSOs to jointly support a coordinated Approach to Data collection and management for a coordinated informed policy change.
International Framework
Emphasis should be placed on adopting the Minamata Convention on Mercury to protect the health of women and girls and safeguard the environment from mercury pollution at the county level. County governments in Kenya should develop strategies to identify and manage mercury-contaminated sites in local goldmines. https://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2023-04/Report%20of%20the%20Auditor%20-%20General%20on%20National%20Action%20Plan%20on%20Artisanal%20Small%20-%20Scale%20Gold%20Project%20for%20the%20Year%20Ended%2030%20June%2C%202022%20for%20Ministry%20of%20Enivornment%20and%20Forestry_compressed.pd
Conclusion and call to Action
We are calling on the policy makers to formalize local goldmining and the urgency of mercury pollution including the urgent need for concerted actions on working collaboratively to achieve a Mercury free gold mining community for sustainable and resilient Gold Mining practices.
