Busia RDC calls for probe into gold firm mistreatment allegations

By Egessa Hajusu

BUSIA - Security in Busia district has condemned the alleged inhuman treatment of employees at Wagagai Mining Uganda Ltd asking Parliament to intervene.

“I don’t know what committee is concerned with minerals, but I want to request it to come on ground and help us to address the suffering and torturing of workers at Wagagai,” deputy Busia Resident District Commissioner Grace Kanuna says.

He made the call on February 18, 2025, while addressing Parliament's committee on government assurance and implementation.

According to Kanuna, the office of the RDC and other local leaders have tried to caution the gold firm's management in vain and requested Parliament to come and support the local leaders.

The committee was in Busia Municipality to assess the functioning and process of the area value addition plant which cost government shillings 15 billion.

The facility is a component of Busia main market constructed under MATIP-2 programme at cost of shillings 24.5 billion.

Committee chairperson Abed Bwanika and the members some of whom didn’t know that Busia hosts the biggest gold mining company in the country were shocked by Kanuna’s remarks and kept on asking questions as the RDC explained.

Unfounded and baseless allegations

When contacted for a comment, Stephen Wafula the firm's public manager described Kanuna’s comments as unscrupulous, baseless and unfounded.

“Wagagai is a big company, which has heavily invested and any attempts by unscrupulous people to damage the company's reputation cannot be taken for granted,” Wafula said.

Brain Wasike, one of Wagagai' lawyers, confirmed that two people were killed in the tunnel last year when the stone collapsed on them but denied that the company was killing workers and burying them.

“We challenge him to produce this evidence,” he said. He said Wagagai, has a total of 1,500 workers including Chinese nationals, noting it difficult to manage such a place without having some issues.

A worker who declined to be named claimed most of the employees come from outside Busia district, making investigations 'impossible'.

Wagagai Mining Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liaoning Hadong Enterprise. It covers a mining area of 92.2 hectares, with mineral reserves of 25 million tonnes, grade 1.09g/ton and 25 tonnes of gold metal.

The processing plant has a design capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day with three-stage crushing and one-stage screening.

Government officials including ministers have been appealing to establish good relationships with the community.

Gen Mbasu Mbadi while on the monitoring visits last year to the plant emphasised that having a good relationship with the communities is the biggest security the company can have than deploying thousands of UPDF.

If the company's schedule remains on course, Wagagai is supposed to start production next month.