EDITORIAL COMMENTARY :
Nairobi (Prime Africa News) – The recent public announcement of bold reforms by Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy, and Maritime Affairs to attract global investors into Kenya’s mining sector may sound promising. But for those who have followed the industry closely, the exact words have been spoken before—without meaningful change.
Kenya’s challenge is not the absence of mineral wealth. It is the absence of credible investor protection. Laws and institutions continue to be shaped by bureaucrats, not by those with practical experience in mining, finance, or investment. The result has been a framework that priorities job protection and control rather than long-term national growth.
The Mines Rights Board (MRB), established under the Mining Act, exemplifies this issue. Its broad discretionary powers over prospecting and mining licenses provide no security for investors, even those who have already met their obligations and spent millions of dollars in exploration.
Instead of fostering certainty, the system leaves room for arbitrary cancellations, overlapping licenses, and the quiet transfer of rights. This environment discourages genuine investment in geoscience, the very foundation of any modern mining industry.
For instance, Small Scale Mining projects take 7-15 years’ window from exploration to production, therefore forcing prospecting Licenses to be reapplied every 3-4 years disregards the realities of geological work:
- Prospecting is inherently high-risk, Long term and may require sustainable investment
- Early stage findings are often inconclusive further requiring survey and drilling
Therefore, the instances on short-term (three-four) years reapplications for prospecting Licenses, irrespective of the scale of investment or commercial realities of mineral exploration undermines the property rights of license holders who might be exposed to loss of their intellectual property and prospecting data upon renewal.
READ MORE :
High Court Declares Mining Regulations 2024 Unconstitutional in Landmark Ruling
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, Justice Bahati Mwamuye ruled that the regulations, which included amendments across several areas of the mining framework, were passed in violation of constitutional principles on transparency and public participation.
The decision follows a petition filed by the Kenya Chamber of Mines, which moved to court challenging the respective regulations.
However, It was not always meant to be this way. In 2011, Kenyan third President the late Mwai Kibaki personally reached out to Australian investors, promising that Kenya was ready to provide security and support for mining ventures.
More than a decade later, those promises echo again—this time from the current Cabinet Secretary Hassan Ali Joho in 2025. Yet the international mining community has a long memory. Investors remember that reforms did not follow assurances. They observe a country asking for capital but unwilling to guarantee tenure security, transparency, or consistent rules of engagement.
Meanwhile, the bureaucratic mindset persists. The attitude is that resources belong to officials who neither fund exploration nor bear risk, while foreign and local investors are treated as temporary guests. Instead of creating laws that reward discovery and development, systems have been designed to allow those in office to capture the benefits once minerals are proven to exist. Which begs the question; is Kenya genuinely a safe destination for future investors and is the government protecting those who have already risked millions of dollars in the mining sector?
This is might be why Kenya continues to lag behind despite its globally recognized potential as its African peers in the mining sector such as Tanzania and Botswana have established systems that provide tenure security and clear rules, attracting substantial capital.
True reform in Kenya’s mining sector will not be achieved through announcements or glossy policy documents. It will depend on whether the government is willing to:
- Appoint sector managers with proven expertise in mining, finance, and investment.
- Guarantee tenure security and intellectual property protection for explorers.
- Remove discretionary loopholes that allow bureaucratic interference.
- Build investor confidence through transparency and predictability.
Until these steps are taken, Kenya’s mineral wealth is likely to remain largely dormant—its vast potential undercut by a regulatory environment that investors see as high-risk and unpredictable. The question that remains is whether Joho’s reforms represent a genuine break from the past or just another echo of promises Kenya has already failed to keep ?
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