NYATIKE, Kenya—An early-morning chill sweeps through the villages of Nyatike constituency in southwest Kenya near the border with Tanzania. Penina Omondi is busy sieving sand as she and her husband, Daniel Omondi, search for gold particles.
For the 46-year-old and her husband, this is their new way to make a living, after having had to move several miles away from home, where they used to mine sand. A Chinese company had come to their remote village with heavy equipment and started mining the same sand, creating an unhealthy competition.
