Sand dealers face a Sh4m fine for night transport in new law

Sand harvesters extract sand from Ewaso Nyiro River at Archer’s Post in Samburu County on November 9, 2024. 

Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group

Sand dealers face a fine of as much as Sh4 million or a jail term of up to four years for transportation of the key construction input outside the designated time of between 6 am and 6 pm in new regulations likely to put pressure on the prices of the commodity.

The newly published Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Sand Harvesting) Regulations, 2024 now require transportation of sand to be done before nightfall.

This is opposed to the past timeframe of between 6 am and 8 pm under the National Sand Harvesting Guidelines, 2007, while the draft Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Sand Harvesting Control and Management) Regulations, 2021 had been silent on transportation hours.

“The permit holder shall transport sand only between the hours of 6.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. in each day,” the regulations published by Environment Cabinet secretary Aden Duale said.

“A person who contravenes the provisions of this regulation commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to the penalty provided under section 144 of the Act.”

Penalties under section 144 of the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) are a fine of between Sh2 million and Sh4 million or imprisonment ranging from a year to four years, or both.

The fee for processing permits for the transportation of sand has been retained at Sh3,000.

The rules, enforced by Mr Duale on recommendation of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), are aimed at ensuring sustainable exploitation and use of sand resources during harvesting and dealing.

Kenya has witnessed increased mining of sand from at least a decade ago owing to the growing demand for the key construction input as a result of rising urbanization and preference for permanent houses in rural settings.

As a result, there has been a rise in excavation activities on riverbeds, lakeshores, seashores, and farms for sand, with various counties struggling to regulate unsustainable harvesting amidst fears of environmental degradation.

The rules stipulate that sand harvesters are not allowed to go deeper than one and a half metres compared with present restrictions of six feet (about 1.8 metres).

The regulations have tasked county governors to establish an eight-member Ward Sand Harvesting Committee which will among, other functions, make proposals and requests on sand harvesting activities to the County Environment Committee.

The committees at the ward level, which will be in office for three years renewable once, will be chaired by a representative of the County Commissioner with membership from the office of the assistant county commissioner, Nema, sand dealers, sand harvesting associations, special interest groups, local water resource users’ associations, and civil society groups.

The County Environment Committee will, among other roles, set minimum pricing guidelines for the sale of sand, and ensure harvesting activities are compliant with the law, national norms, and standards.

“The prices … shall take into consideration the requirements of the laws relating to fair competition. Any person who sells sand shall issue a receipt to the purchaser and keep records of such receipts for inspection by the relevant authorities,” the regulations state.

Pricing of sand will have an impact on the highly unpredictable cost of construction which is largely driven by fluctuating charges for inputs.

Higher prices of sand could deal a blow to construction already hit by contractions over costly material. Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics(KNBS) data shows that the construction sector contracted for the second consecutive quarter to September 2024, a lackluster performance last seen 22 years ago.

KNBS data shows that the construction sector shrunk by 2 percent in the quarter to September, prolonging a poor run from the three months to June 2024 when it contracted by 2.9 percent.

The back-to-back contractions in the construction sector were against a backdrop of reduced infrastructure projects and rapid increases in the cost of materials including cement, quarry products, sand, and paints.

Market data shows that an 18-tonne truck load of river sand currently goes for up to Sh38,000 depending on the location.

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