Thousands flock to a village in Kenya in search of gold
Over the past two weeks, thousands of people searching for gold have arrived in the village of Cheporor in the Kanyarkwat area of West Pokot County, Kenya. At the peak of the influx, authorities estimate that about 10,000 people came to the village, mainly from Kenya and neighboring Uganda.
A farmer’s discovery
The mass arrival of people may have been prompted by a discovery made by 33-year-old Manasseh Lomachar, a farmer who raises goats. As NDTV World reports, citing the BBC, he saw a group of women washing gold in a riverbed and joined them.
A few weeks ago, Lomachar found a 3-gram gold nugget and sold it for 36,000 Kenyan shillings. He believes that reports about this discovery caused prospectors to flock to the village.
At the same time, neither the size of the potential gold-bearing deposit in Cheporor nor whether Lomachar’s discovery itself caused the excitement has been reliably established.
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Authorities’ statements and strain on infrastructure
West Pokot Deputy County Commissioner Samuel Kiari said that young men had found a substance that was likely a significant amount of gold, and the following day women made another significant discovery in the same area. According to him, these incidents increased interest in Cheporor.
Kiari noted that gold had been washed in the area before, but usually only small amounts of the metal were found. He also said that small-scale gold traders had told authorities that there were about 100 people daily on average. It remains unclear whether all the substances that prospectors consider to be gold are actually gold.
The influx of people has created business opportunities: according to officials, more than 200 businesses selling food, water and other essential goods have appeared at the new prospecting site. At the same time, the large number of arrivals has increased the strain on the small village’s infrastructure and heightened concerns over water supply and sanitation conditions.
