TURKANA – The promise of jobs from Turkana’s growing gold-mining industry has turned into a source of frustration for young people in Kalomwae village, Turkana South, with residents accusing police officers guarding a mining site of harassment and excessive use of force.
The youths claim they were assaulted, chased away and shot at when they went to the mining site seeking employment opportunities. They are also accusing the investor operating the site of sidelining local residents, alleging that people from outside the area are being favoured for available jobs.
The allegations were raised publicly on August 20, 2026, amid growing concerns over community participation and access to employment opportunities in Turkana’s emerging gold economy.
For Brenda Napetet, a young woman from Kalomwae, the dispute is not simply about finding a job. She says the alleged treatment of young people has created fear and frustration in the community.
“When young people go looking for employment and instead come back saying they have been beaten, chased away or shot at, that creates fear and anger in the community. People want to understand why they cannot even go and ask for an opportunity to work,” said Napetet.
She says young people expected the mining activities to create opportunities for local residents, particularly at a time when many youths in the area are struggling to find stable sources of income.
The youths’ allegations have not been independently verified. Sifa FM News sought an interview with the investor to give it an opportunity to respond to the allegations, including the claims concerning recruitment and community agreements, but the investor declined a media interview.
Sifa FM News had also not established a public response from the police specifically addressing the Kalomwae youths’ allegations as of August 24, 2026.
Speaking to Sifa FM News, Kalomwae village opinion leader Jacob Emekwi said the community had welcomed mining activities with the expectation that local residents would benefit from the resources being extracted from their area.
“The investors have violated the agreements that were reached with the community,” Emekwi said.
Emekwi said the agreements were intended to ensure that mining would bring tangible benefits to the host community rather than leave residents watching an industry develop around them without meaningful opportunities.
“Our young people are looking for work. They have gone there because they believe that if mining is taking place in their own community, they should at least have an opportunity to seek employment. Instead, they are being chased away,” he said.
He said the community was not opposed to mining and did not want the dispute to develop into a confrontation between residents and investors.
“We are not against development and we are not against mining. What we are asking is for the community to be respected and for the agreements that were made with the people to be honoured. Our people should not be spectators when resources are being taken from their own area,” Emekwi said.
The latest dispute is not the first time residents of Kalomwae have raised concerns over mining activities.
On January 3, 2026, residents protested what they described as an investor’s failure to honour an agreement reached with the community, resulting in mining activities being halted as efforts were made to resolve the dispute.
The concerns had already attracted the attention of the Turkana County Government.
On April 30, 2025, the county’s Department of Mining held consultations with community members and project stakeholders at the Kalomwae exploration site and pledged to closely monitor mining operations.
More recently, on May 28, 2026, county officials held public engagements at the Kalomwae and Juluk mining sites, where residents were given an opportunity to express their concerns and expectations over proposed mining activities. The county said the engagements were intended to promote transparency, community participation and responsible mining.
The renewed accusations over employment therefore come against a history of efforts to resolve questions around the relationship between mining investors and the communities hosting their operations.
For Emekwi, the employment question is particularly important because of the number of young people searching for opportunities.
“These are young people who have families to support. They are looking for something to do. When they see people coming from elsewhere and getting opportunities while the young people here are left out, naturally they will ask questions,” he said.
He said residents were not demanding that local youths be given jobs automatically, but wanted the recruitment process to be transparent and fair.
“If there are jobs, let the process be clear. Let people know what the requirements are and let our young people compete fairly. We are not saying give them jobs simply because they are locals; we are saying give them a fair opportunity,” Emekwi said.
The question of community participation in mining has also reached Parliament.
Earlier this year Turkana South Member of Parliamenr Dr. John Ariko Namoit raised concerns over mining activities in Kalomwae and other parts of the constituency, questioning the extent to which residents had been involved before mining licences were issued and seeking clarity on arrangements for communities to benefit from mineral resources.
The concerns over jobs and community benefits come as Turkana’s gold sector faces another, more immediate challenge: safety.
On August 14, 2026, six miners were trapped underground after a gold-mining pit collapsed in Naduat, Nakalale Ward, Turkana County. As of August 17, rescue teams had not established whether the miners were alive.
By August 19, rescue efforts were still ongoing, with the miners having remained underground for six days.
The Naduat incident has brought renewed attention to the risks faced by people entering Turkana’s gold mines in search of a livelihood.
The danger is not limited to mine collapses. Earlier this year, a mining manager was shot dead at a gold-mining site in Kalemungorok, Aroo Subcounty in Turkana South highlighting security concerns around some mining operations.
The incidents are separate from the allegations made by Kalomwae youths but are part of a wider and increasingly urgent conversation about the human cost of Turkana’s gold rush.
For residents, the questions are becoming harder to ignore.
Who gets the jobs? Who benefits from the mineral resources? Who ensures that agreements between investors and communities are honoured? And who is responsible for the safety of the people working at the mines?
Emekwi says the community wants dialogue rather than confrontation.
“We want mining to bring development to this community. We want our young people to get jobs, we want businesses to grow and we want the community to benefit. But that can only happen when there is trust between the investor and the people,” he said.
He called for the community, investor and government authorities to return to the negotiating table and review the commitments made to residents.
“We do not want conflict. We want to sit down with the investor and the government and discuss these issues. If there are agreements, let us go through them and see what has been done and what has not been done. If there are jobs, let us agree on how local people will benefit,” Emekwi said.
He also called for the allegations against police officers to be investigated.
“If our young people were assaulted or shots were fired, then that must be investigated. The community deserves to know what happened. We cannot solve these problems by silence or by intimidating people,” he said.
For Brenda Napetet and other young people in Kalomwae, the issue remains immediate: they want an opportunity to work and to benefit from an industry operating in their community.
For the families of the miners trapped in Naduat, the concern is more fundamental whether their loved ones will make it home.
And for Turkana as a whole, the rapid expansion of gold mining is raising a defining question about the county’s mineral future: whether gold will become a source of shared prosperity or deepen existing tensions over jobs, community rights, security and safety.
