By Kagondu Njagi
KIBINGO, Kenya, Dec 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Jotham Micheni and his brothers were divvying up their family land in central Kenya after their father’s death, nobody wanted to take the barren patch on the eastern flank.
The five sons of the farming household in rural Kibingo village, about 130km (80 miles) northeast of Nairobi, all feared being given the rocky land they knew would be unsuitable for growing food crops.
As the youngest, and therefore the last to choose, Micheni ended up with the plot.
Five years on, he is making more money from that one-eighth of an acre of rock-filled land than he does growing and selling maize, potatoes and beans – and now his brothers are desperately vying for what they say is their share.
“I used to think land where there is only rock is wasteland,” Micheni said, digging up chunks of granite and basalt that he will sell to road construction contractors for about 10,000 Kenyan shillings ($100) per truckload.
“Now I am learning that nothing is worthless.”
Demand for rock material to construct roads and buildings around Kenya is skyrocketing, say villagers and contractors, providing an alternative source of income for farmers who face continued failed harvests, largely due to worsening droughts.
But the rush for rocks is also fuelling land conflicts and divisions among family members, locals and village chiefs told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“(My brothers) have threatened to beat me up if I do not let them mine my rock,” said 42-year-old Micheni.
Kenya is going through a construction boom, with data from the country’s competition authority showing that the extraction of stone, sand and gravel has helped the construction sector’s contribution to GDP jump from 5% in 2015 to about 9% today.
Quarry mining used to mainly happen in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid regions, explained David Ong’are, director of compliance and enforcement at the National Environment Management Authority.
But the practice is becoming more popular around the country as farmers struggle to grow enough crops to make a living, he added.
Micheni said he can make at least 20,000 Kenyan shillings ($200) a month selling the rocks he mines on this land, double what he earns every few months growing and selling maize and beans.
TURNING ROCK INTO GOLD
Communities throughout Kenya are struggling with the effects of climate change.
Earlier this year the government said 1.1 million Kenyans, mainly in the arid counties, would need humanitarian food assistance to help them overcome food shortages resulting from drought.
Quarrying rocks has changed some farmers’ fortunes, who collectively account for about a third of Kenya’s annual economic output, according to Ong’are.
But this alternative revenue stream is not hassle-free.
Rocky areas of land that have remained idle and neglected for years are now becoming a trigger of land and inheritance disputes among family members in rural Kenya, say local leaders.
Assistant police chief of the Tharaka Nithi administration Lawrence Micheni told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that his office has seen a rise in the number of disputes over land in the past five years, and some of those cases revolve around quarry mining.
