The President added that it will also accelerate the processing of construction and industrial minerals significantly increasing the performance of the sector, job creation and contribution to the country’s economic growth.

The state-of-the-art centre will benefit more than 10,000 people involved in mining activities in the county.

           The National Development Implementation and Technical Committee (NDITC) said the facility which was handed over to the Ministry of Mining in 2017 by the contractor was ready for full-operationalization allowing the government to start earning revenue from the lucrative gemstone trade.

           The NDITC had earlier in 2021 toured the Sh60 million facility to assess the status and determine if the multi-million project center was ready for commissioning

           The construction works for the Voi Gemstone Value Addition Center started in 2015 and ended in 2017. The government then equipped the facility in 2018 in readiness to start processing of raw gemstones.

           However, there has been little progress in the processing of gemstones. One of the biggest obstacles was delay by the ministry of Mining to gazette the center’s management committee.

           However, in early February 2021, the committee was gazetted paving way for dealers and miners to be allocated mining booths.
According to the Ministry of Mining, Kenya loses millions of shillings during the exportation of raw gemstones. There is also a lot of smuggling of the precious stones from the mining areas which makes the government lose revenue.

           Evans Masachi, the Director of Value Addition in the ministry of mining said the center is meant to legitimize the trade in gemstones and earn revenue for the government.

           It would amongst others have a standardized procedure for export, documentation of minerals, gather data on production and export and conduct market surveys.

           “This center will also be used as a model to train women, youth and other groups on the value-addition procedures that will make their mining activities lucrative,” he said.

           He added that a survey on production and exportation data showed the center can generate an average of three billion shillings from trade of value-added gemstones.

           Rev. David Zowe, the chairperson of Taita-Taveta County Artisanal Miners, termed the call to operationalize the center as long overdue saying his members were eager to use it.

           He added that artisanal miners had borne the brunt of ruthless brokers who took advantage of lack of market to buy rare gemstones at throw-away prices.

           “The center was constructed to allow the smallest of miners to get value for his product. We are happy this is happening now,” he said.

           However, the NDITC expressed concerns over the surge in synthetic gemstones that were being manufactured in factories which threatened the market for genuine gemstones.

           Mr. Edward Omito, the center manager, said there was an influx of factory-made gemstones in the country that risked destabilizing established markets for genuine stones.

           “Some countries manufacture Tsavorite and other rare stones endemic to this region in their laboratories. This poses the risk of interfering with the market and there is a need for laws to regulate such products,” he said.

           The center will serve other gemstone mining regions including Baringo, West Pokot, Kitui, Meru, Isiolo, Samburu and Turkana.

           Miners have been selling their raw gemstones in grams. With value addition, cut stones will be sold in carats which will generate more money for the miners.