Kitui residents sue CS Duale, Nema and county over sand harvesting
Sand harvesters load a truck at River Kivou in Kitui County in this file photo. Inset is Environment CS Aden Duale and Kitui County Governor Julius Makau Malombe.
158 residents of Mwingi, Kitui County, have sued Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, the devolved unit and several state agencies for failure to stop sand harvesting, which has caused wanton destruction of the environment.
Mr Duale was sued alongside the Governor Julius Makau Malombe-led Kitui County Government, the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha), the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) and Kitui security officers for individual failure to enforce existing laws to protect their rivers.
The suit filed at the Environment and Lands Court in Kitui has been certified as urgent and an inter partes hearing set for next week.
The residents allege that each of the 11 parties in the suit has willfully failed to stop uncontrolled, chaotic, and illegal scooping of sand from nearby seasonal rivers, which are their only source of water and livelihood.
In the 22-page petition, they claim that for the last one year, more than 100 trucks coordinated by a vicious and ruthless cartel descended on rivers in their area every day to mine sand.
"Sand harvesting has led to exploitation and wanton destruction of the environment...it has lowered the water table, dried aquifers and rivers, eroded river beds and led to general water and air pollution," reads the petition.
The residents, who are represented by former Law Society of Kenya Chairman Eric Mutua, claim that as the CS for environment, Mr Duale has failed in his role of spearheading effective national policy implementation and supervision of conservation, protection and management of the environment.
The County Government of Kitui has been cited for failure to enforce a specific law - the Kitui County River Basins Sand Utilisation and Conservation Act, which was passed to curb illegal sand harvesting.
The residents also blame the county leadership for double standards, noting that on one hand, it has a law that outlaws sand harvesting while on the other, it collects revenue from sand transporters at cess points at Kanyonyoo along the Thika-Garissa Highway.
Kenha has been sued in its capacity as the custodian of the Thika-Garissa Highway, which the residents say is used to transport sand harvested from seasonal rivers in Mwingi to Nairobi.
