KENYA GOLD RUSH

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1932, Page 6

KENYA GOLD RUSH

EUROPEANS SEEK LUCK

HARVEST FOR NATIVES

CAPETOWN,

Considerable interest has been aroused in Kenya Colony in the recent discoveries of gold at Kakaniega, and although they are-not to be compared with the great finds in the past in the Klondiue and Australian nelds, there is reason to believe that the alluvial deposits are more extensive than was'tot first surmised.

Kakaniega'lies 20 miles north of Kitiumu, the railhead on the aorta-, eastern shore of Lake Victoria

The workings • have been confined to rivulets feeding the River Yala, says the Nairobi correspondent of the London “Morning Post,” and it would ne hard to guess that the hot valieys even now shelter 400 European prospectors and their attendant natives Prospectors’ licenses cost only a few shillings, and there is a tax of 10s levied on each claim staked.

Little wonder that many farmers, tired of growing' maize to feed the locusts, have turned their eyes to Kakamega. and '.set out in their lorries for the goldfield/ by way of Eldoret and Kisunni.

It is thought that richer deposits, and even nuggets, wil' be discovered when the workings have been further developed.

At 1 present the new prospector stakes his claim on a certain stream and spends the first few days clearing tlio rich alluvial deposit from the gold •streak, which may be one or two feet below the .surface. Then, having const! ucted his channel for washing, he begins operations in earnest. The gold streak may he two or three feet thick, but below that the bed of the stream yields nothing. The happy-go-lucky prospector on his arrival is moved to mirth rather than anger by the keenness and chicanery of the local peasantry, vying among themselves to guide the “hwa.ua” to the richest gold deposits, each man emboldened by the prospect of a lucrative trade in vegetables, eggs, and milk, paying more regard to the position of his family hearth than any minor considenation of “yellow stuff” and the points of the compass.

Perhaps the optimistic prospector—and what man in Kenya is not an optimist?—will eventually become discouraged, and better prices for produce will persuade him to return to

, his farm. | Certain it is that the Kavirondo I natives, at present rejoicing in an | abundance of goats and cattle, but, as always, grinningly impassive to everything—even to famine—will be quite unperturbed if these good things are. suddenly denied then, and will resort ; to their ready philosophy: “Mzungus (Europeans) come, Mzungus go, hut we go on for ever.” •