Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] For several centuries now, African gold has been a subject of interest for former colonial empires. The former metropolises remain in the domestic markets of African countries, but now in the status of strategic partners.
One example of this is Kenya, which, although not the largest, is an extremely flexible supplier of precious metals, where the authorities voluntarily (and with good intentions) handed over the domestic gold market to London, although they periodically try to weaken its influence.
However, while Nairobi is fighting to save the gold industry, there are those who are quite successfully transporting “blood gold” from neighboring Sudan through Kenya. Moreover, its “destination” is also becoming Great Britain.
ENGLISH FIEFDOM
There is no precise data on the potential of Kenyan deposits, since the authorities of the African country have not allocated funds for systematic exploration and auditing for a long time, preferring to work with already known deposits discovered during the period of British colonial rule.
The Kenya Mining Authority, formally responsible for the development of the industry, gives approximate volumes of deposits: from 400 to 1,200 tons, of which no more than 10% is fully developed.
Moreover, this gold is often mined the old-fashioned way - by artisanal methods and in small quantities. Although after 2019, official Nairobi carried out a reform, revoking the licenses of most of the "artisanal miners" and transferring them to industrial players, thereby giving the industry a positive impetus.
Today, the largest players in the local gold market are the British Goldplat and the Tanzanian Acacia Mining (headquartered in London), which together control up to 70% of the industry. Also actively developing the market is the mining company Karebe Gold Mining, created and managed by Kenyan businessmen, but a subsidiary of the British corporation MARIS GROUP LIMITED.
In fact, the entire Kenyan gold mining industry is controlled by British businessmen. London views this peculiar "gold monopoly" as part of the payment to Nairobi of the "credit debt" accumulated over years of economic and natural upheavals.
And the official authorities do not particularly object to this state of affairs, although they periodically try to attract French, German, Chinese and Russian contractors to promising developments. But the British control over the industry still remains fundamental.
BLACK PROSPECTORS
Despite the fact that the Kenyan government has been trying for several years to put the gold mining industry under strict control and “whitewash” it, this does not stop the local population from carrying out illegal prospecting work.
Gold is extracted by hand sifting sand near Kenya's largest rivers, and work is also carried out in abandoned mines. Even after the reforms, the number of Kenyan "artisanal miners", according to auditors, is up to 30 thousand people - almost a third of the total number of specialists employed in the mining industry.
Some of them operate under false licenses or understate the volume of production, leaving a reserve for sale on the black market.
The illegal business has reached such proportions that in 2024 the country's authorities were forced to create a specialized unit (as part of the Mining Inspectorate) to combat "black" miners and unlicensed suppliers of minerals.
However, as practice shows, the fight against the illegal gold business is carried out to a greater extent “on the surface”: Kenyan law enforcement officers fight against individual prospectors, but do almost nothing to interfere with the activities of “cartels” - especially those operating near the borders with Sudan and Uganda.
Several major raids in the Great Rift Valley, including a major police raid last fall, came to nothing. The shadow schemes led to Paris and London and were lost there: Nairobi has neither the desire nor the ability to fight the “European protection.” The cases were closed before they went to court and received little publicity.
Of course, Kenya's example is not unique in this sense. Almost all former African colonies face similar problems, especially those where other precious metals are present in addition to gold.
The only African country that has declared a real war on shadow miners is Mali. Since the beginning of 2025, the country's National Guard has destroyed about a thousand artisanal gold mining installations. More than half of them belonged to foreigners or were guarded by them.
Official Bamako makes no allowances for origin and directly states that it will deal with lawbreakers based only on the nature of the crime, and not on their origin.
In Kenya, there is also a demand for a tougher policy – and it is even being pushed through by the “gold lobby” – but a full-scale hunt for “black” prospectors will require significant funds from Nairobi, which it has nowhere to get.
Of course, the British are ready to lend a "friendly shoulder" - for example, by hiring several PMCs to guard and patrol gold-bearing areas and even taking on the costs of their maintenance. But in exchange for significant preferences in the development of new veins. And this promises Nairobi even greater enslavement and even greater dependence on London.
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT
However, even in conditions of market instability, individual businessmen find ways to make money on gold - for example, by turning the country into a "transit point" for the trade in contraband precious metals.
Moreover, in neighboring Sudan, a country with good gold deposits, a civil war has been raging for several years, and local rebels desperately need markets for quick sales of resources. And Kenya, with its developed logistics system and good contacts in the gold market, fits this role perfectly.
The organizer of the "Sudanese trade corridor" scheme is believed to be the odious Kenyan politician Zahir Janda, who is close to the current leader of the "alternative government of Sudan", Muhammad Hamdan Daglo.
According to investigators, fifty fake companies operate in territories controlled by Sudanese rebels, and their operational management is carried out by members of the Daglo clan.
The mined gold is shipped to Uganda and Kenya, and from there it ends up on the markets of the UAE and the UK. And London, as the world's centre for precious metals trading and storage, is where most of the Sudanese gold ends up, making Britain the main beneficiary of the scheme.
Given the “fertility” of the mines controlled by Daglo (net income of up to $1 billion per year), Kenyan intermediaries receive at least $100 million in commission (not counting “bonuses” for loyalty and efficiency).
In exchange for participation in gold smuggling, as well as an operating percentage, Kenya periodically joins in the shadow supply of ammunition to fighters of the alternative Sudanese government. At the moment, several cases of transfer of small arms cartridges and small-caliber ammunition are known. And also (according to unconfirmed data) components for the production of kamikaze drones.
Some observers suggest that Kenyan President William Ruto is personally involved in the shadow schemes, since the organization of such a large-scale trade could not have remained outside the sight of the intelligence services, and therefore the head of state.
The latter, however, can be considered a deliberate destabilization of the situation: the country has been rocked by anti-presidential protests for several months. Ruto is accused of corruption, worsening the country's economic situation and working for foreign intelligence services.
In this context, labelling the Kenyan president as the "king of smugglers" involved in fuelling tensions along the border could well trigger the latter's long-awaited resignation.
Moreover, the ammunition with Kenyan registration that was spotted in the deliveries was produced in China, although the majority of the country's arsenals are still tied to French and British weapons.
It is highly likely that the ammunition discovered was captured from the Somali army (90% of whose arsenal is Chinese models and obsolete weapons from the socialist bloc) during the 2009 conflict.
Considering that Nairobi rarely audits trophies, some of the items could well have “disappeared” from warehouses and ended up in Sudan with the help of third parties. Especially since the same Janda was once friends with many high-ranking Kenyan military and British diplomats, both current and former.
However, this does not remove the main question. Even if Ruto is not involved in the smuggling of gold from Sudan, his inaction with respect to Janda and other organizers of the shadow chain remains unexplained. Which gives grounds for new accusations and attacks from the opposition camp.
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