Sign Nothing Yet: Joho Must Publish Mrima Hill's Rare Earths Terms Before Picking a WinnerSign Nothing Yet: Joho Must Publish Mrima Hill's Rare Earths Terms Before Picking a Winner
Key Highlights
- Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Ali Joho plans to award the Mrima Hill rare earths deposit within three weeks, with no terms published.
- Kenyan law already says mineral agreements must be public, and the Constitution sends deals like this one to Parliament.
- Mrima Hill has already cost Kenya one long arbitration fight, and we set four demands with a 13 November deadline.
Kenya is about to hand out the right to mine a rare earths deposit its own minister says holds minerals worth trillions of shillings (tens of billions of dollars), on a three-week clock, and not one line of the deal has been shown to the people who own it.
Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Ali Joho said in an interview published on Friday that the Mrima Hill rare earths and niobium award would be made "within the next two, three weeks", after two Chinese bidders withdrew from the Mrima Hill tender.
Our position is simple: the Ministry of Mining must publish the scores, the owners behind each bid and the draft agreement before it names a winner, and it must send that agreement to Parliament before a single licence is signed. Speed is not a strategy. Daylight is.
Five bidders, one Kwale hill and no published terms
The facts are not in dispute. Five tenders went in on 21 October for the deposit in Kwale County, about 65 km from Mombasa.
The field now includes Meridian Mineral Holdings (a Fluor and Tetra Tech consortium), Frontier Minerals with ReElement Technologies, Mrima Earth led by Critical Metals Corp, the Kenyan-British joint venture Gem of Dreams, and an Australian pairing of RareX and Iluka Resources.
Joho told Reuters that preliminary indicators point to "tens of billions of dollars' worth" of rare earth minerals and niobium in the hill.
Joho also said: "We want a transparent process." We take him at his word. But a transparent process is one the public can check, and right now Kenyans cannot see how the five bids will be scored, who ultimately owns each consortium, what royalty or processing commitments each one made, or what the State will sign.
The proposals are not identical on the point that matters most: Kenyans.co.ke has reported that the RareX and Iluka plan includes processing some minerals at Iluka's existing refinery in Australia, while Mrima Earth has promised processing in Kenya.
That difference alone could decide whether Mrima Hill builds a Kenyan industry or simply fills ships.
The law already demands the daylight we are asking for
None of this asks the ministry to invent new rules. Section 119 of the Mining Act, 2016 states that all mineral agreements "shall be public and be made accessible to the public", and requires them to be posted on the ministry's website.
Section 48 gives the State a 10% free carried interest in large-scale mining rights and in operations involving strategic minerals, a stake Kenyans are entitled to see valued.
Under Section 183(5), royalties are split 70% to the national government, 20% to the county and 10% to the host community, which means the people of Kwale have a direct financial interest in the rate that is agreed.
The Constitution goes further. Article 71 makes any grant of a right to exploit Kenya's natural resources subject to ratification by Parliament, and the Natural Resources (Classes of Transactions Subject to Ratification) Act, 2016 applies that test to mineral agreements worth US$500M (about KSh 64.85B) or more.
On the minister's own description of the deposit, Mrima Hill clears that bar many times over. The ministry has seven days to submit such an agreement once received; Parliament has 60 days to decide.
The order matters. An agreement debated after the winner has been announced is a ratification under pressure. An agreement published first is a decision Kenyans can still shape.
Mrima Hill has already cost Kenya years in arbitration
This hill has a history that should make every official cautious. In March 2013 a special mining licence for Mrima Hill was issued to Cortec Mining Kenya, then suspended by the incoming government that August.
The investors took Kenya to international arbitration, and Kenya won only in October 2018, when an ICSID tribunal found the licence had been issued without the environmental impact assessment approval Kenyan law requires. More than five years after the suspension, the minerals were still in the ground.
That lesson cuts both ways. A rushed award built on missing approvals is not a fast deal; it is a future lawsuit. The hill is also a gazetted forest and a sacred Kaya site of the Mijikenda and Digo communities, as the same report notes, and residents have raised fears about displacement and radioactive waste.
Those questions do not disappear because a minister wants a quick signature. We have watched the cost of that approach elsewhere: Kenya's Magadi soda ash shutdown shows how quickly a mining relationship can collapse into a dispute that idles a plant and drains exports.
The case for speed, and why it fails
The strongest argument against us deserves a fair hearing. Washington and Beijing are competing for critical minerals, the United States has backed Kenya's mineral processing drive, and bidders with options elsewhere may lose interest if Kenya dithers. Investors dislike open-ended reviews, and two bidders have already walked.
But nothing we propose is open-ended. Publishing scores and a draft agreement takes days, not years. Parliament's window is fixed in law at 60 days. The deposit is not going anywhere, and a buyer who will not accept public terms is a buyer Kenya should be wary of. The real risk to investment is a licence that a court later voids, as the Cortec award shows. Certainty comes from a deal that survives scrutiny, not from one that avoids it.
Four things the Mining Ministry must do before naming a winner
We call on the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, and on Cabinet Secretary Joho personally, to do four things before any award, and no later than 13 November:
- Publish the scorecard. Release the evaluation criteria and each bidder's score, together with the beneficial owners of all five consortia, so Kenyans can see why one bid beat another.
- Publish the draft agreement. Put the proposed royalty rate, the valuation of the State's 10% carried interest, and every local processing commitment, with dates and penalties for missing them, on the ministry's website as Section 119 already intends.
- Send it to Parliament first. Submit the agreement for ratification under Article 71 before any licence is issued, and ask Parliament to hold public hearings in Kwale.
- Settle the ground before the deal. Publish the status of the forest and Kaya gazettement, the environmental licence process and a draft community development agreement with Kwale's host communities.
Mrima Hill may be the most valuable piece of ground Kenya has ever offered to investors. It can be awarded once. Joho has said he wants a transparent process; the next two weeks will show whether that word means a published contract or only a press statement.
In Summary
- Who decides the Mrima Hill award?
- The Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs under Cabinet Secretary Hassan Ali Joho, choosing among five consortia that bid on 21 October.
- What is being awarded?
- The right to mine the Mrima Hill rare earths and niobium deposit, which Joho says preliminary indicators value at tens of billions of dollars.
- When is the award due?
- Joho said in an interview published on 30 October that the award would come within two to three weeks.
- Where is Mrima Hill?
- In Kwale County, about 65 km from Mombasa; the hill is also a gazetted forest and a sacred Kaya site.
- Why does Mwenendo want the terms published first?
- Section 119 of the Mining Act requires mineral agreements to be public, and Article 71 of the Constitution sends large natural resource deals to Parliament for ratification.
- How does the money reach Kwale?
- Under Section 183(5) of the Mining Act, royalties are split 70% to the national government, 20% to the county and 10% to the host community.