| dc.description.abstract | This paper assesses the relationship between Small-scale mining and poverty laying emphasis on the fact that small-scale mining is poverty driven. Using a classical example of Kyasioni Quarry in Yatta District the research is intended at proving that small-scale mining can be used as a tool for poverty reduction using Food and Energy Intake approach. With key parameters like income spend per day on basic needs and non-food items, education, the kind of houses the miners live in and the number of dependants they have it will be easy to determine how poor this population is. Armed with this information, the research will prove that the people involved directly in this mining activity are poor hence the need to provide a policy recommendation to use this rural small-scale stone mines as an engine for economic growth and poverty reduction.
The study found that most stone workers at K yasioni quarry are poor earning less than two dollars per day. Also they spend over 80% Of their earnings on food only. In addition to the low earnings most of the workers live in temporary and semi permanent houses, are uneducated and rely on small scale farming for sustenance.
Using this mining activity at Kyasioni the stone workers and the residents of this area can benefit by ensuring better wages for the stone workers, better education for their children, decent housing and high trickle down effect on the cash inflows into this quarry. Using the stone quarrying at Kyasioni the government can empower the local residents financially and economically making them less vulnerable. to economic shocks. Key to this study is to help the local residents be economically independent, be able to access better health services, good education for their children and have better housing as a positive development due to the existence of the highly valued building stones at Kyasioni quarry. This would act' as one of the strategies by the government to reduce poverty in rural Kenya. | en_US |
