The large number of gold refineries operating in Nairobi and its surroundings is fuelling smuggling across the region, a new report by the development organisation SWISSAID claims.
- •According to SWISSAID, significant quantities of gold are being smuggled every year into Kenya from countries in the region, more particularly South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (in some cases through Tanzania), Ethiopia and possibly Sudan.
- •This gold does not remain in Kenya; it is re-exported to destinations such as the UAE and India.
- •A basic web query reveals the names of several of the refineries (e.g. Afrik Gold Testers, Canacongo Global, Emirates Refinery Ltd Lavington, Grana Gold, Gulf Refinery), some of which are evocative of links with the UAE.
“These refineries might even act as a key driver of illicit gold flows into Kenya. If the National Assembly passes the Gold Processing Bill, a Gold Processing Corporation will be created to oversee the activities of Kenya’s numerous refineries. Whether or not this will effectively reduce the illegal gold trade remains to be seen,” the organisation says in the report.
An expert on Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Sector (ASM) in Kenya consulted by SWISSAID in early 2025 confirmed that gold was “smuggled from Congo and South Sudan through Kenya to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in UAE via Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and added that the business is mostly dominated by entrepreneurs through their wholesale shops are in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
SWISSAID considers it plausible that gold may be flowing from Sudan to Kenya, given Kenya’s role as a transit hub. However, SWISSAID’s brief research on this aspect has not yielded any solid evidence so far.
It also says traffickers use the “the Moyale and Yabelo route to Kenya to smuggle gold from Ethiopia’s gold from Oromia and Southern Ethiopia.”
“It is difficult to assess the scale of gold smuggling into Kenya and its evolution in recent years, for few of the sources mentioned above put a figure on the amounts of yellow metal being moved across the border into Kenya,” the. Switzerland-based organisation added.
“This said, one event suggests that the traffic is everything but small: a cargo of three tonnes of gold from the DRC on its way to Dubai through Kenya is said to have gone missing from the customs at Nairobi’s international airport in November 2023.”
