Tension has gripped Waita in Kitui County after a man who opposed unregulated sand mining was hacked to death by a feared group of youth linked to sand barons last week.
Joseph Mwendwa, 70, was part of a group of villagers protesting along River Mwania against the destruction caused by unregulated sand mining.
According to survivors, the attackers were armed with clubs and machetes.
“My dad died in my hands as I tried to rush him to Mwingi Sub-County Referral Hospital on a motorcycle. He died while pleading for a glass of water and so far, there are no reports of arrests,” Mzee Mwendwa’s son Mathew Kimanzi recalled.
He spoke during an interview with the Daily Nation on the sidelines of his father’s burial at Kaunguni village on Saturday.
Speakers at the burial identified prominent sand merchants as the prime suspects in the assault, which left at least six residents nursing club and machete wounds.
They accused local administrators and police of turning a blind eye as sand barons terrorized the region. But police say investigations into the killing are ongoing.
Kitui County Commissioner Erastus Mbui vowed tough security measures to end the bloody sand wars. Addressing reporters after the River Mwania incident, Mr Mbui called for patience, saying investigations were underway.
Spike in illegal sand harvesting
He revealed that a security meeting convened following Mzee Mwendwa’s killing resolved to impose a total ban on sand mining at River Mwania as the probe continued.
Mzee Mwendwa’s death is the latest in a county witnessing a spike in illegal sand harvesting. The tragedy has put Governor Julius Malombe’s administration under scrutiny.
When he enacted a law to regulate the lucrative sand industry in 2024, environmentalists and riparian communities praised it as a milestone in addressing decades of degradation caused by unregulated sand mining.
Two years on, however, Dr Malombe has been working to restore public trust while battling erosion of his environmental conservation credibility as the county grapples with unregulated sand extraction.
Outcry over the sand trade has intensified recently amid a boom linked to te national government’s affordable housing programme. The industry involves youthful sand loaders accused of sparking moral decay around mining sites and transporters who ferry sand to merchants in Thika and Nairobi.
“When sand miners descend on a river, they scoop all the sand, leaving only soil and bare rocks. Once depleted, they move to the next river. The money ends up in the pockets of a notorious cartel,” Kitui senator Enoch Wambua told colleagues during Dr Malombe’s Senate committee appearance.
He has threatened mass action to end wanton sand mining, which he blames for environmental degradation and moral decay.
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka has also criticised Dr Malombe’s administration over unregulated sand harvesting.
“Wanton sand mining has depleted our rivers and threatened livelihoods. Every truck taking sand risks turning Kitui County into a desert. This must end,” Mr Musyoka said recently.
Self-regulation in sand industry
The Senate Public Accounts Committee has accused Dr Malombe of lax enforcement of the Kitui County River Basins Sand Utilization and Conservation Act, 2023.
But when appearing before the committee, Dr Malombe defended the sand law, underscoring its potential to grow county revenue, create jobs, ensure food and water security and conserve the environment in a region characterized by acute water scarcity.
A key component of the law is promoting self-regulation in the sand industry. To achieve this, the county is organising sand miners into community-based organisations, riparian communities and transporters into cooperative societies.
“We are in the process of setting up these groups and registering sand transporters,” said Kitui Energy, Environment, Forestry, Natural and Mineral Resources Executive Richard Mwendandu.
“The sand cooperatives are not empowered enough to move sand from riverbeds to aggregation yards for sale,” he said. This gap has allowed sand merchants to infiltrate the county’s sand marshal plan.
“Kitui sand mining communities are weak. We have empowered some organised sand mining groups with tractors for transporting sand to aggregation yards. Left to their own devices, the county will not sell any grain of sand,” said Peter Kalungu, a former councilor and a prominent figure among sand merchants. He chairs an association of sand transporters operating in the county.
“We are engaged in legitimate business. We harvest sand from sites approved by the National Environmental Management Authority. The Senate is free to investigate our operations,” Mr Kalungu told Nation, adding that he owns most of the trucks ferrying sand from Kitui rivers to Thika and Nairobi.
“We pay around Sh18 million per year in sand cess to the county,” he added.
Julius Mutukaa, a regional scholar, has urged Dr Malombe to reinstate the ban on sand mining previously enacted by former Governor Charity Ngilu to restore sanity in the industry.
