Strengthening Collaboration: Kenya Delegation Visits Kitumbi Kayonza Mine Site

The planetGOLD Uganda project has been supporting artisanal and small-scale gold miners across the country to organise into cooperatives as a key step toward formalising their operations and align them with Uganda’s legal framework. By providing training, organizational support, and access to better practices, the project is helping miners to improve their livelihoods while ensuring they are engaging in safer, more responsible mining practices.  

When the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives reached out for a visit by Kenyan counterparts to one of the artisanal gold miners’ cooperatives, the project saw this as a golden opportunity to highlight the work of the women at the Kayonza Mine Site, while supporting Uganda’s artisanal gold miners to share their experiences and progress more broadly.  

The planetGOLD project hosted a delegation from Kenya’s Ministry of Cooperatives, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development at the Kayonza Mine Site in Kassanda District in May 2025. The visit marked an important milestone in promoting cross-border learning and collaboration within the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector. 

Led by David. K. Obonyo, the commissioner of cooperatives, Kenya, the purpose of the visit was to understand Uganda’s regulatory framework for the ASGM mining sector, as well as the capacity building, and resource mobilization available to support cooperatives to thrive in the country. 

The Kenyan delegation was joined by officials from Uganda’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives, Kassanda District officials, planetGOLD Uganda staff, and miners from Kitumbi-Kayonza Mine Site. The highlight of the visit was an engagement session with the Kitumbi-Kayonza Women Gold Miners Cooperative, a group established with the support of planetGOLD Uganda through dedicated training programmes aimed at strengthening and formalizing the ASGM sector. 

During their interaction, the delegates and women miners discussed strategies for networking and building sustainable relationships between miners in Kenya and Uganda. The exchange created a platform for sharing experiences, best practices, and business development ideas. By learning from one another, both groups are hoping to expand their markets, improve mining practices, and advance the empowerment of women in the sector. 

The interactions further highlighted the need for networking among the artisanal miners to learn from one another. Mr Obonyo said the delegation wanted to share their experiences and challenges with cooperatives and miners with Ugandan colleagues. 

True to the learning, Shifra Ndugga, the secretary Kitumbi Kayonza Women Gold Miners Cooperative Society, said Kitumbi Kayonza has 766 registered miners out of which 134 are women and 632 are men highlighting that planetGOLD has enhanced their knowledge about gold mining as a business within women miners. “Women own pits and participate in processing of ore. They started saving their shares and ultimately started a cooperative society,” she indicated. 

In Uganda, the idea of cooperatives is popular among farmers and planetGOLD’s interest in cooperatives is to ensure the ASM sector, largely run informally can also start to formalize and benefit from government programmes. Lynn Gitu, the project manager, said, “Our interest in the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives in Uganda started when we began to understand that there is need for formalization to go beyond the talk of coming together in groups to cooperatives as this is the only way miners can get into the formal legal system.” 

As part of the visit, delegates also toured a modernised mining shaft at the site to see firsthand how miners are implementing safer, more efficient, responsible mining practices.  

The Kitumbi-Kayonza Women Gold Miners Cooperative stands as a model of what can be achieved when artisanal miners are equipped with the right knowledge, skills, and organizational structures but also illustrates the transformative potential of projects like planetGOLD. Through exchange visits like this, planetGOLD will continue to foster a more responsible, inclusive, and responsible future for the ASGM and their communities. 

The planetGOLD Uganda project is supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It is executed by IMPACT in partnership with Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development under the Department of Mines. The project aims to reduce the use of mercury by supporting formalization of the artisanal gold mining sector and increasing access to finance. This will lead to adoption of mercury-free technologies and allow access to more responsible and traceable gold supply chains.