Mwingi Residents Defend their sand

Mwingi residents fight for Sand

 By Wambui Kirubi

Works at a project to tarmac the phase 1 of a 21km Mwingi-Muunguu road by a Chinese company has hit a snag after residents blocked the firm from collecting sand from local rivers as raw material demanding compensation.

 As a result, the Mwingi DC Peter Kinuthia respectively held meetings with the Mukuthu and Kivou villagers pleading with them to allow sand harvesting to speed up the tarmacking of the Mwingi-Kandwia-Tseikuru road.

The residents some of them reportedly armed with bows and arrows have continually blocked the China wu yi Company from collecting sand prompting the intervention of DC Kinuthia to attempt to save the project from stalling.

The residents are demanding that the contractors pay for the sand at commercial rates as it must have been factored as they did their Bill of Quantities.

Indeed, the sand, being a local resource belongs to the residents and it is their responsibility to protect it as its utilization or otherwise informs their livelihoods.

Mr Kinuthia’s stance has therefore stunned residents as he fails to support them when they defend what actually belongs to them.

Observers believe the DC needs to intercede to have the contractors pay for the sand  and not to plead that they be allowed to take the public resource free of charge.

At a meeting to pleade for the residents to give up their sand, Mr Kinuthia said: “The blocking of the Chinese company from collecting sand from Kivou River is harmful and has already led to the temporally stalling road the tarmacking works. You must allow this project to move ahead as it is funded by the government and once the money is recalled then the area stands to lose,” said the DC.

Kinuthia was speaking to residents of Kivou area in the periphery of Mwingi town who together with the residents of the neighbouring Mukuthu have blocked the Chinese company from collecting sand respectively from Kivou and Tyaa seasonal rivers adversely affecting the tarmacking project. 

 “There are prophets of doom who have misled you that the Chinese company has money to compensate you for carrying sand from the river but those are lies. The money allocated for compensations is meant for buildings that will go down to pave way for the road,” the DC said.

A spokesman for the residents says that they want the contractor to pay for the sand just the same way they will buy cement or Tar for construction works and not compensation.

He told the residents that local MPs- VP Kalonzo Musyoka (Mwingi north)and assistant minister David Musila (Mwingi south)- were extremely concerned that the local residents were frustrating the building of the tarmac road that had taken intense lobbying to get funding. This claim by the DC could not be verified as it would be unlikely for the two MPs to allow that a local vital public resource be drawn without payment to benefit the residents. Moreover, why they have also sought to remain in the shadows and let the DC speak for them over the matter remains suspect.

The DC told residents to allow the Chinese company to collect sand for the road project and he would in return impress of the firm to drill a borehole in the area to help end the water scarcity in the area.

On the contrary, the contractors are required to sink boreholes whose water they will use for their project and the leave the facility to resident’s use as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) to the community-so residents need not seek favours from the contractors and the DC needs to enforce the demand by residents as it is justified.

Community representatives who included Malia Mutemi and John Musyoka said that for the sake of leaving the area hospitable for future generations, the residents had resolved not to allow sand harvesting at Kivou. They said the activity had aggravated food insecurity and waters scarcity.

 “The residents cannot bear it any more. Before the sand harvesting gained root in Kivou water was  readily available but today all the water sources have dried up.

The many vegetable farms residents were managing through small scale irrigation because water is no more,” Ms. Mutemi said.