Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana has suspended an official of his administration over illegal sand harvesting in Mbooni constituency.
Jackson Muthaisu, the director of the Sand Conservation and Utilisation Authority, will remain on leave pending investigations into sand harvesting at the Mukio River in Mbooni East.
The development comes after residents had complained that trucks were ferrying sand from the river in the night, against the Makueni County Sand Conservation and Utilisation Act, 2015.
“The law states that only domestic sand can be harvested from our rivers and so the officer will not be in charge of the agency until we get to the bottom of the matter,” Kibwana said.
Cartels allegedly took advantage of authorised harvesting window after farmers requested the authority to help them remove large amounts of sand deposited on their farms.
Earlier, Muthaisu had told the press that the sand harvesting in the area was being supervised by community committees to ensure only farm deposits were evacuated.
“Only the authorised trucks are carrying out the activity and no one should think that we are collecting money illegally,” he said.
However, some members of the community claimed that trucks ferried sand from the river during the night.
“We got suspicious when the well-covered sand trucks started ferrying the commodity at night towards Machakos direction along the Tawa Machakos road,” Ngula Musili, a resident, said.
