Maasais, Ogieks demand logging permits
Members of the Ogiek community from Tinet Settlement Scheme display their land documents during a protest against a vetting exercise. Maasais and Ogieks have cried foul over the allocation of tenders to harvest trees in Nakuru and Narok counties. FILE PHOTO | GEORGE SAYAGIE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- About 100 saw millers are licensed to log 50,000 hectares of mature exotic and indigenous trees in the Mau East forest reserve at Mariashoni, Logman, Kiptunga and Olengape, where the communities live.
- Meanwhile, small scale millers have expressed fears that they may have to close shop as a result of tenders awarded to big companies to harvest trees, which they say has led to low supply of timber locally.
Maasais and Ogieks have cried foul over the allocation of tenders to harvest trees in Nakuru and Narok counties.
They accuse the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) of issuing logging permits to “outsiders” and tenders to big companies leaving them vulnerable to poverty.
Olpusimoru ward representative Wilson ole Masikonte and Ogiek Welfare Council national coordinator Joseph Towett on Wednesday said the communities would not sit and watch as logging companies made huge profits from forests that they had jealously preserved for decades.
About 100 saw millers are licensed to log 50,000 hectares of mature exotic and indigenous trees in the Mau East forest reserve at Mariashoni, Logman, Kiptunga and Olengape, where the communities live.
“The two communities have lived and depended on the Mau Forest since time immemorial.
“We have been involved in conservation through tree planting and we do not benefit from the money accrued from this forest while the trees are felled by saw millers and multinationals,” Mr Masikonte said during a news briefing in Narok Town.
DENIED PERMIT
The community leaders claimed that millers from Molo, Elburgon, Nakuru, and central Kenya held permits to harvest trees in the region.
They accused a “cartel” of officers at the KFS in Nakuru of denying local communities a chance in the allocation of trees for harvesting.
Meanwhile, small scale millers have expressed fears that they may have to close shop as a result of tenders awarded to big companies to harvest trees, which they say has led to low supply of timber locally.
Although the government permitted saw millers to harvest mature and overgrown trees in public forests to supplement the demand for timber, many millers opt to export the same to Nairobi and foreign countries.
Mr George Gitonga, a saw miller and a former chairman of Timber Manufacturer’s Association, said the supply of trees to local millers could not meet the demand in the construction industry.
“The government has not lifted the logging ban.
“The saw millers are only given a permit to harvest mature trees between 30 and 40 years while they are required to plant other trees to recover the old ones,” he said.
