[1] In his report for the Colonial Office Kitson suggested that possibly as much as half of the gold being prospected was wasted by amateur techniques.
[2] In an article for the magazine The Spectator, Kitson compared the influx of amateur gold-prospectors to the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada in 1897-8 : "The road to Kakamega now resembles a miniature 'trail of 98' without the snow.
[3] But it seems that Kitson's initial report had helped create the rush in the first place by highlighting the rich pickings available.
[4] As The Spectator noted "Since the publication of Sir Albert Kitson's report, the population of the Kakamega goldfields had doubled".
The European settlers, who had been hard hit by the Great Depression, responded eagerly to news that there might be gold in the Kakamega region.