A 55-year-old man from Mutwangombe Village met a gruesome death in the early hours of Monday morning after being crushed by a reversing tipper lorry at Kamunyu River, a hotspot for sand harvesting in Kitui County.
The man, whose identity is yet to be released pending notification of next of kin, was part of a crew loading sand into the lorry when the tragedy occurred. According to local administrator Grace Mawia Munyoki, who spoke to Channel 15 News by phone, the incident happened just moments after the truck had been fully loaded.
“It was pitch dark, and the lorry was reversing after getting filled. He was caught in the blind spot and run over,” she said, visibly shaken.
Police responded to the distress call around 3:00am, cordoned off the scene, and processed it before transferring the body to Mwingi Level 4 Hospital Mortuary, where a postmortem is expected to be conducted.
Attempts by Channel 15 News to get a statement from the Mwingi Police Station OCS were unsuccessful, as our calls went unanswered. However, a police source confirmed that the tipper lorry involved has been impounded and towed to the station as investigations continue.
This chilling incident has reignited public anger over illegal sand harvesting operations in Kitui County. Despite the passage and assent of the Kitui County River Basins Sand Utilization and Conservation Bill, 2023, enforcement remains a thorny issue. Residents have repeatedly decried unchecked extraction, environmental degradation, and now — loss of life.
“This is blood sand,” said one local resident. “People are dying, rivers are drying, and yet trucks keep coming — day and night.”
As the deceased’s family mourns their loss, Kitui leaders and enforcement authorities are once again under pressure to crack down on the shadowy multi-million-shilling sand trade that continues to claim lives and destroy ecosystems.
