Cartels cash in on crooked sand harvesting deals as residents despair

Residents of Karura village in Mbeere South constituency remove sand from a lorry that they had blocked on October 3, 2015, to protest child labour in sand quarries. [PHOTO/JOSEPH MUCHIRI/STANDARD]

The long-held view of sand as a lifeline for water-starved Ukambani residents is changing in many areas and taking the unpleasant shape of a curse, thanks to runaway greed fanned by junior administrative authorities, county officials, the police, brokers and politicians.

This God-given treasure that floods small and large river beds in the lower eastern Kenya region today enriches only a few.   Blood, and not life-sustaining water, is what flows where the commodity has been scooped dry leaving barren rocks.