List Details Violations Across Several Locations

Manasse Lomachar, 33, told the BBC he sold three grams of gold for 36,000 Kenyan shillings ($280; £205) several weeks ago, and believes the news of his find led thousands of prospectors to arrive in the area. What was once bushland and rough grazing ground near the village is now scarred by pits, mounds of earth and makeshift mining camps. Local authorities estimate that about 10,000 people arrived at the height of the rush, though it is not clear if Lomachar's find or other recent discoveries sparked the excitement.

Many of the prospectors come from Kenya and neighbouring Uganda, and hope even a small amount of the precious metal can transform their futures, as many rely on unreliable farming income. Lomachar says his discovery came about purely by chance while he was searching for a missing goat. "I joined them, and that's how [the village] realised there was gold in this area, he said, referring to a group of women panning along a riverbed.

Farmer and herder Patrick Lokolia, from neighbouring Napawoi village, joined the rush hoping to earn extra money to support his family. "I have children in school, and paying school fees has been a big problem for me, he told the BBC. Eighteen-year-old Abigael Chelengat, who had never mined before, arrived hoping to find enough gold to pay her school fees and help keep her younger siblings in school.

Samuel Kiarie, the deputy commissioner of West Pokot county, said the rush began after two notable discoveries in early August. "Young men found what appeared to be a substantial amount of gold. The following day, women made another significant find in the same area, he said.

He noted that women have been finding small quantities of alluvial gold along the same seasonal riverbed for years, typically earning $8-$23 a week. Kiarie reckons that as rumours spread, the number and size of the discoveries were exaggerated, drawing in ever larger groups of people with little or no mining experience. Since the initial rush, the number of prospectors has dropped to around 2,500 as some have given up the search.

Questions remain about the size of the deposit and its commercial potential. Kiarie confirmed that small-scale gold traders reported receiving an average of about 100 people every day, though whether the finds were actually gold is not known. Individual discoveries reportedly range from amounts worth a few hundred Kenyan shillings to one find valued at approximately 78,000 shillings ($600).

Mugisha Godfrey, an artisanal miner from Busia in eastern Uganda, travelled to Cheporor after hearing about the discovery from a friend, spending about 100,000 Ugandan shillings ($27) to get there. "We sleep under the trees, and when morning comes, we continue working. Sometimes we work both day and night, he told the BBC.

So far he has found nothing, but he is not discouraged. We can't return unless we find something. Only when we have found what we need can we go back home, he said.

The authorities want to make sure that children leave the site come September when the school term starts. West Pokot county borders Uganda, and communities on both sides have long-standing social and family ties. Some of the more experienced miners are deep in holes excavating the earth and drilling at rocks, while mostly women crouch in the murky water of a nearby seasonal river, washing and sifting mud and sand hoping to detect a tiny trace of the element.