Shovelling for a pittance — East Africa’s young sand miners trade education for exploitation 

Children are increasingly involved in sand mining in East Africa. The illegal sand trade occurs in mostly remote areas, hidden from sight and out of reach of anti-child labour advocacy campaigns. That makes it hard to determine the exact number of youngsters involved.

Mined sand is widely used in the construction industry and, in the case of sand mined by children, usually in civil projects. In Uganda, underage boys dredge sand from Lake Victoria and from rivers for paltry wages. They use wooden canoes with no protective gear in these fast-moving waters, risking injury or death. 

Unrestored sand pits — large holes dug along paths, the depth of which can be deceptive when filled with rainwater, especially at night — can be fatal to youngsters unaware of their locations. Police seldom follow up on reports of children who have fallen into or drowned in these pits.

Along the Sirare-Isebania border of Tanzania and Kenya, cartels use children to dig sand out of pits. More youngsters join when schools close for the holidays in April, August and December, says Jacob Maluki, Senior County and Community Engagement Officer of the Athi Basin Area for Kenya’s Water Resources Authority.

In Zanzibar’s Mangapwani town and its adjacent villages, such as Bumbwini, children are moving away from selling coconuts to digging and selling sand. The income they receive from the latter is steadier because of the demand from the hotel construction industry.

Children are driven to the illegal industry by economic hardship and unstable household income. Families push their children into mining and selling sand in small quantities, says Halinishi Yusuf, Managing Director of Kenya’s Makueni County Sand Conservation and Utilization Authority. One reason is that sand mining requires zero investment and is highly informal. As a loader, you need only a spade to ensure a daily wage.

A child in Zanzibar can sell an ox cart of sand for $1.70 (TSh4,000), earning instant cash. Other children work in unlicensed quarries operated by sand miners who sell three tonnes of sand for between $30 and $50 (TSh70,000 and TSh120,000) and pay the children meagre daily wages.

Covid-19 exacerbated the problem in Kenya. The abrupt closure of schools for long periods and parents losing incomes due to business disruption saw children moving into the sand business. At Kaonyweni Secondary School in Kenya’s Machakos County, student numbers dropped from 115 to nine between 2019 and 2021, says Maluki. A similar trend was observed in other schools, such as Mbingoni Primary. Instead of being at school, children were mining sand in rivers. They haven’t returned.

Boys who drop out of school get work as assistants to sand loaders. When they turn 18, they become loaders themselves. Research by the Enact project found that a loader in Kenya can earn a decent wage of between $30 and $60 (KES3,000 and KES6,000) a day. 

Underage girls, whose families pressure them to earn an income from the sand trade, do menial tasks, such as sharpening shovels or selling food to the labourers. They are also lured into commercial sex work, which can result in early pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual violence.