Sand miners have sparked an outcry in Machakos County after they invaded farms and open fields, exposing school infrastructure and damaging roads, and putting the lives of residents in danger.
One of the affected schools is Matetani Secondary School, where the classrooms hang on a cliff edge after miners scooped sand from the adjacent field.
Equally affected is Mbondoni Primary School near Kangundo township, whose classrooms now overlook an active sand mining site.
“The uncontrolled sand mining started during the long holiday imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and intensified in latter days. It has left gaping gulleys just next to the school, which we feel are dangerous, as pupils may fall into them,” Ms Esther Itumo, the headteacher told nation.africa on Monday.
Regulation in sand mining
Trade in sand, a building material, is a big economic activity in Kajiado, Machakos and Makueni counties, which neighbour Nairobi where it is highly sought after.
A lot of the sand is mined from river beds, putting a strain on rivers, and calling for regulation in sand mining.
The United Nations Environmental Programme called for its sustainable exploitation in a 2019 report on the global dynamics in availability and consumption patterns in the commodity.
At Matetani and Mbondoni, however, the miners, who are mainly youths, go about their business, oblivious of the danger they pose to the environment and the community.
These are the latest incidents of an escalation of the row pitting sand miners and conservationists.
The owners of the land where mining happens claim exclusive rights to their parcels of land and are often allowed to go on with their business.
Although both the national and county governments have a role to play in conserving the environment, authorities in both levels of government in Machakos County have been looking the other way, when it comes to sand miners.
Matetani chief Mutinda King’ele has painstakingly fought claims that he benefits from proceeds of the lucrative sand trade.
“The sand miners strike under the cover of the curfew imposed to slow down the spread of Covid-19. Although we have made arrests before, nothing much happens afterwards,” he told journalists recently.
Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has also not expressed any reservations on wanton sand harvesting for the last eight years he has held office.
This leaves the regulation of sand harvesting on the whims of the hapless local communities and a handful of bold politicians who find such a move convenient to them and their cause.
“The county government has no clear policy on dealing with the sand mining. We depend on the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) laws. But the local Nema office seems overwhelmed,” said Kangundo Central MCA Moses Mitaa.
Ms Jane Njehia, the local Nema official, said the agency was aware of the complaints raised by the Matetani community and promised to act.
The agency has, however, not set foot in the affected region, which is also known for growing coffee and stone quarrying, fuelling concerns that the agency is not keen on preventing the looming disaster.
Aggrieved by the apparent inactivity of the local leaders, some residents have written to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and his energy counterpart Charles Keter, seeking their quick intervention on the environmental degradation before things get out of hand.
Environmental destruction
“The environmental destruction has been caused and continues to be escalated by the perpetrators who are well known to local administration but have done nothing about it as they are beneficiaries of the proceeds of the illegal sand trade,” reads the letter seen by nation.africa, and which is copied to the Nema director-general.
The communities affected by the sand trade widely accuse administrators, the police and other government officials of being collaborators in the wanton sand mining.
It is in this light that Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka led a spirited campaign against sand harvesting in rivers running through his constituency two years ago.
There was also a vigilante group that shot sand miners using bows and arrows and burned trucks found carrying sand from rivers in the region.
The nation.africa independently counted three homes of suspected sand brokers, which had been razed by the vigilante bankrolled by local tycoons.
Two years down the line, the MP, and the residents savour the tranquility that has since returned in the region, while the riparian communities rejoice as the damaged rivers gradually start recovering.
