Kenyan president urges Africa to devise policies reaping from mineral wealth

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday called on African mining organization to develop policies that will make the continent reap maximum benefit from the mining industry.

Kenyatta told minerals experts from the Southern and Eastern African Mineral Center (SEAMIC) to ensure African countries are not short changed by multinational corporations extracting minerals in the continent.

"For far too long, we have allowed our resources to be exploited to benefit other people. Time has come for us to change that narrative," he said in a statement.

SEAMIC is an international organization under the umbrella of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Established in 1977, it comprised eight eastern and southern African states, namely, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique, Comoros and Angola. In 2007, membership to the organization was opened to all African countries.

Kenyatta, who was speaking during a meeting with a delegation of the 35th Governing Council of the SEAMIC in Nairobi, expressed the need to set similar mining conditions in the continent to safeguard the sector from unfair exploitation by foreign companies.

"We should not allow multinational companies to play us against one another by imposing unnecessary competition among us. They should be made to find the same mining conditions across the continent," he said.

"The discovery of minerals in our region should herald a brighter future for us -- jobs for our youth and improved living standards for our people, but not civil strife and poverty," added the president.

The SEAMIC delegation, led by Mining Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, briefed Kenyatta of the Center's achievements in the last two years.

They said the center has been consistent in promoting the socioeconomic and environmental development of the mining sector in Africa. Endi