Paper short abstract:

Kenya’s rapid urbanization has created a soaring appetite for sand. Across the country, expanding and poorly regulated mining troubles ecosystems and communities alike. This paper explores how the devolution of resource governance in Kenya generates new conflict dynamics around sand-mining.

Paper long abstract:

The astounding urbanization as well as the massive extension of transport infrastructures during the last two decade across Kenya have created a soaring appetite for sand. In general, sand as a mundane resource often remains absent in discussions on extractivism and, more specifically, is under-regulated in national resource governance, where sand features as a ‘construction mineral’ that is not subject to strict mining restrictions. On the one hand, sand-mining turned into a valuable source of income and empowerment for hundreds of thousands of people across the country. On the other hand, mining sites along rivers and in open pits have mushroomed yielding harmful cascading effects on the environment and the social fabric and making sand-based livelihoods unsustainable. What is more, the large-scale unregulated mining of what is often considered a ‘development resource’ has been recognized as a business opportunity based on structural violence seen in displacements of locals from ‘profitable’ sites, corrupt practices and public health disasters.

The devolution of power to the newly established counties has to some extent changed the dynamics of sand harvesting with varying efforts of regulation generating ongoing push-and-pull dynamics. Based on pilot studies in 5 counties and a particular focus on dynamics in Kedong Valley, Narok County, this paper examines the informal rules and norms that govern large-scale sand-mining in Kenya. It provides valuable insights into the political economies of sand extraction.