KENYA: Gold mining in the west loses its lustre
Photo: Kenneth Oduor/IRIN  |
| Women and girls offer sex to the miners in exchange for money |
MIGORI, 2 October 2008 (PlusNews) - The sleepy town of Nyatike, in western Kenya's Migori district, has relied on gold mining since foreign prospectors discovered the precious metal in the 1930s; men do most of the mining, while women and girls come to the mines to sell food.
“I come here to make tea or at times porridge, which I sell to the miners here ... my grandmother is too old and weak to do anything,” Mercy Awino*, 17, told IRIN/PlusNews.
Her parents died of HIV-related illnesses two years ago, when she was in grade eight. Now she goes to the mines every day to try and make money to look after her siblings, her one-year-old daughter and her aging grandmother.
”But the desperation to make more money can at times push some of us to do more than just sell food,” she said. All these women and girls you see here have sex with the miners to get money. We sleep with them and they give us money to take back home.” Her mother had also worked at the mines before her death.
“At times we just have sex right here at the mines. If you go inside the caves, they are very dark and nobody will know what is going on," Awino added. "Me and most of my friends, we just have sex with the men here."
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Nyatike constituency is one of the poorest in the country. The women and girls sell sex for as little as US$1.
John Ouko, 40, a miner, told IRIN/PlusNews that the women often put pressure on the miners to have sex with them. “When these young girls and women approach you to have sex with them so that you can give them money to buy sugar, do you say no?" he said.
"They will think you are bad, and you do not want to help them if you do not sleep with them, so we do that and give them something to take back home. Most of these young girls have lost their parents; we used to work with some of their fathers here at the mines.”
Poverty still a major challenge
The Migori District HIV/AIDS officer, Tom Rakewa, said HIV/AIDS awareness messages did not seem to be getting through to the mining communities. Migori district is in NyanzaProvince, which has an HIV prevalence of 15.8 percent, the highest in Kenya.
Photo: Kenneth Oduor/IRIN  |
| Mining communities are neglected by awareness campaigns |
“Poverty is the biggest problem in this area, and women and children are affected most," he said. "Research shows that Nyatike division, in particular, has a very high number of women- and child-headed households. When you have such a vulnerable group suffering from both HIV and poverty, then you can imagine what the situation that puts them in."
Rakewa said on average, six out of every 10 women and girls who visited the Nyatike sub-district hospital during pregnancy tested positive for HIV.
Migori District's medical officer, Mwita Nyamohanga, said although there were many non-governmental organisations fighting HIV in the area, reckless sex continued. “You know we cannot stop what goes on there in the mines because the people will tell you they are trying to make a living."
Gold mining also poses serious health risks to the miners: the dusty conditions in which they work are conducive to the spread of chest infections such as tuberculosis, and when miners contract HIV their health deteriorates rapidly.
"HIV is a real problem here,” said Nyamohanga. “Walk into some of these homesteads and the number of graves and orphaned children will surprise you."
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Theme(s): (PLUSNEWS) HIV/AIDS (PlusNews)
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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] |
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