For many women in Siaya County, the search for gold comes with a painful price that goes far beyond hard physical labour.
Beneath the hope of earning a living lies a hidden and disturbing system of exploitation, where poverty, desperation, sexual discrimination and abuse are deeply rooted in daily life inside the gold mines of Abimbo.
These harsh realities were recently brought to light by an investigative exposé released by Africa Uncensored.
Siaya County lies along the Busia–Kakamega greenstone belt, which is part of the larger Lake Victoria Greenstone Belt, a region known for gold deposits.
In Abimbo Mines, located in Bondo Sub-County, gold mining has become both a source of survival and a dangerous trap, especially for widows and other vulnerable women who have limited economic options.
With an estimated population of about 1.1 million people, Siaya County is home to nearly 50,000 widows. This means that roughly one out of every 25 residents is a widow.
Many of these women are left with the responsibility of providing for their families without stable income, pushing them toward risky informal work such as artisanal gold mining.
The mining conditions themselves are extremely dangerous. The pits are dug by hand and can reach depths of nearly 200 feet. Their walls are weak and unstable, and collapses can happen at any time without warning.
The physically demanding work of digging deep underground and extracting gold-bearing stones is done almost entirely by young men who have the strength to endure such harsh conditions. This control over extraction gives them significant power within the mining economy.
According to women working in Abimbo who spoke to Africa Uncensored, this imbalance has led to a practice locally known as “Apinde,” a term that is only understood within the community.
It refers to the exchange of sex for access to gold-bearing stones. Women explained that when a young man gives you stones, he often expects sex in return.
Over time, this practice has become so normalised that women who refuse are often completely denied any chance to earn from the mines.
The women are rarely allowed to choose the rocks believed to contain gold ore. Even when they pay for stones with money, they remain exposed to manipulation and abuse. Those who cannot pay in cash are pushed into sexual arrangements, leaving them with no real choice.
“It is the young men who do that work because they have the strength to dig and bring out the stones. It is not easy work at all,” one woman explained. “That is why the men take advantage of women. They are the ones who access the best stones first and in large quantities, so they control everything.”
For older women, the situation is especially painful and humiliating. A 51-year-old widow described the emotional trauma of being approached by men who are young enough to be her sons.
“At my age, I am 51 years old, and a young man is telling you that you must sleep with him so he can give you stones,” she said. “He is the same age as my child. It is very painful and degrading.”
Other women revealed that sexual encounters often take place inside or near the mining pits themselves, sometimes even as men are preparing to descend underground. This shows how deeply exploitation has been woven into the daily operations of the mines.
The abuse is not limited to widows alone. Any woman trying to earn money from gold mining faces similar risks. As mining pits become exhausted and no longer produce gold, women are forced to move to new sites, where the same cycle of exploitation starts all over again.
Health risks are also high. Many miners reportedly refuse to use protection during sex, leaving women with little power to negotiate safer practices. This significantly increases the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
According to a 2018 report, Siaya County had an HIV prevalence rate of 15.35 per cent, nearly three times the national average of 4.95 per cent.
Widowed women are the most affected, with HIV prevalence standing at 26.4 per cent, compared to 15.7 per cent among married women.
A Public Inquiry Report by the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) also found that exploitative sexual behaviour is common in many mining areas across the country.
The report linked this abuse to widespread drug and substance use. Women working in the mines said that men who smoke marijuana often lose all restraint and openly demand sex, regardless of a woman’s age or situation.
In an attempt to regain some control and avoid exploitation, some women have chosen to enter the pits themselves and mine directly.
However, even underground, their safety is not guaranteed. The mines remain extremely hazardous, and women face the same risks of injury or death.
On March 3, 2023, tragedy struck when at least five female artisanal miners lost their lives after a prohibited gold mine collapsed in Lumba Village, Rarieda Sub-County. The incident highlighted the deadly dangers faced by women who are forced into unsafe mining practices in their struggle to survive.
The situation in Abimbo paints a grim picture of how poverty and inequality continue to expose women to abuse, turning gold mining from a source of hope into a cycle of suffering with devastating human costs.
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