Kitui’s push for sand harvesting laws gathers steam
Sand miners load a truck at River Kivou in Kitui County on May 10, 2023. Kitui Governor Julius Malombe has moved to regulate sand harvesting.
What you need to know:
- In recent years, Kitui has been rife with conflicts resulting from the use of sand.
- Sand miners say there has been a significant reduction in their fortune as powerful middlemen have invaded the industry.
Kitui Governor Julius Malombe's deliberate push to regulate the multi-million-shilling sand industry in the county has entered the final stages.
Kitui County Assembly conducted public participation on County River Basin's Sand Utilisation and Conservation Policy and Bill 2023. Tharaka MCA Kimanzi Mwange, chairman of the Environment committee, said ward representatives had already collected views from local communities and other stakeholders and were set to enact the law to regulate sand mining and trade.
The proposed sand law has a robust mechanism for regulating sand harvesting in the semi-arid county. It also fosters sustainable utilisation of sand resources by proposing a robust formula that provides for equitable sharing of the accruing benefits to the local communities and restoring river systems.
Dr Malombe is banking on the law to bring sanity to the lucrative industry, which has remained unregulated, exposing the county to the vagaries of global warming and costing the county government billions of shillings in revenue.
Kitui County is one of the biggest sources of sand, which is sold in Thika and Nairobi. Over the years, however, the trade has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the local communities, which bank on sandy riverbeds for water during the dry spells.
According to experts, sand holds water the way a sponge holds water. Hand-dug wells on the sand beds enable the communities to access the commodity for livestock and domestic use during the dry spell.
In recent years, Kitui has been rife with conflicts resulting from the use of sand. Sand miners say there has been a significant reduction in their fortune as powerful middlemen have invaded the industry.
A 20-tonne truck of sand costs Sh6,000 at the riverbeds but fetches around Sh40,000 in Nairobi and Thika markets. “We envisage a situation where only a few trucks that are licensed will be allowed into designated areas of the rivers where sand loaders will have jobs,” said Dr Malombe.
He said the sand would be taken to aggregation yards and it is from this point that those who want sand for commercial use will come and buy it.
“County revenue officers will be able to collect revenue in an organised manner following a laid down structure. The sand scoopers will have jobs at the riverbeds and the aggregation yards. This will translate to more jobs for the youth,” Dr Malombe added.
The county boss has pledged to restore sanity in the sand sub-sector. A sand taskforce that he set up last year came up with the draft sand law.
The Kitui sand taskforce was chaired by Esther Musili, a former executive director at the Anglican Development Services.
Its membership included Marian Kioko, the head of the National Environment Management Authority in the Eastern region.
Besides analysing the current sand harvesting and transport situation in the county, the taskforce benchmarked with the neighbouring Makueni County, which streamlined the sand trade in 2015 after enacting Makueni County Sand Conservation and Utilisation Act.
The Makueni sand law is credited with bringing sanity to the sand sector and restoring rivers destroyed by years of wanton sand harvesting.
The law places sand resources at the hands of Makueni Sand Conservation and Utilization Authority, a semi-autonomous agency that uses a robust formula to distribute the proceeds of sand trade across the community with special emphasis on environmental conservation efforts, which include restoration of rivers through the construction of sand dams.
