Machines left to rust after logging ban

• Bulldozers cost the State over Sh80m to import from Sweden

Sawmill machinery worth more than Sh80 million is lying in disuse at the Forest Industrial Training College in Nakuru, which was closed down a few years back.

The Saturday Nation found bulldozers and lorries grounded and gathering rust in the compound. Sources said that sawmill machinery imported from Sweden has been lying idle since the Government closed the centre.

The sawmill unit in Nakuru’s industrial area used to sell timber at commercial market rates but was shut down as a result of the crunch that followed the ban of logging in Government forests in 1999.

The sources said that the mill was running huge debts and the Government had been finding it difficult to service the machinery.

In 1995, there were more than 220 sawmills in the Rift Valley but most of them shut down after the ban. Those that survived rely on logs from private farms.

Forestry Department records indicate that following the ban on logging in 1999, Government revenue from the sale of forest produce in Rift Valley Province dropped from Sh100 million annually to only Sh37 million in 2001.

Windfalls (old trees that were knocked down by the wind) and diseased plantations were also not harvested, leading to the loss of Pinus patula plantations in Keiyo, Marakwet and Trans Nzoia. Millions were also lost in forests that were excised to create human settlements.

Towns such as Elburgon in Molo and Maji Mazuri in Koibatek District, where timber was the main economic lifeline have become ghost towns. Some of the sawmillers have since ventured into farming and other enterprises.