Residents set to petition Senate over sand dredging by Chinese firm

Residents of Kwale are planning to petition the Senate over the dredging of sand from Indian ocean by a Chinese construction company. South Coast Resident Association (SCRA), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Kwale County Government and other meet today to start the process of collecting signatures for the petition.

The decision to petition the Senate comes after Governor Salim Mvurya raised the dredging issue with suspended Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau and President Uhuru Kenyatta when they visited the county early this year.

The dredging stopped for a while but, according to SCRA Chairperson Lucianna Parrazzi, has resumed in some parts of the Kenyan south coast of the Indian Ocean.

"We are fighting a national government project and as such they will not support us on this," said Ms Parrazzi.

Parrazzi said residents are unanimous in their rejection of dredging in any form or shape.

"Our stand is that we don't want this dredging anyway. We are going to raise our objections and we want as many people as possible to come. We will get them to sign the petition physically and will also put it online," she said.