Queries arise on suitability forests task force

Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko addresses journalists at NHIF, Nairobi, on February 19, 2018. A task force has been put in place to assess the management of forest resources. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Sources at Kenya Forest Service said sibling rivalry with Kenya Wildlife Service has led to accusations of illegal logging.
  • Foresters say that water catchment issues cannot be complete without defining what illegal logging is.

Questions have arisen regarding the task force appointed by Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko to inquire into forest resources management and logging activities.

Forests management professionals question the decision by the Mr Tobiko to have the task force stashed with civil society members whose final decisions may be clouded by their own interests.

They have also questioned the decision by Mr Tobiko to leave out the professional body of foresters.

WATER CATCHMENT
There is also sibling rivalry between Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forest Service that has been simmering for years and may manifest itself in the deliberations of the committee.

Foresters also say that water catchment issues cannot be complete without defining what illegal logging is, and the role of communities tapping drinking water inside forests, thereby disadvantaging people downstream.

Efforts to get input from Mr Tobiko did not bear fruit as questions sent to him remained unanswered; nor did he reply to our calls.

TASK FORCE
Last week Deputy President William Ruto unveiled the task force and assured it of political and financial support.

The task force, which began its formal hearings on Thursday, has two weeks to deliver its first preliminary report. It is expected to do this on Thursday.

It spent the first week setting up its office. The Cabinet Secretary gazetted the 10 member multisectoral task force headed by Green Belt Movement chairperson Marion Wakanyi Kamau last week.

Other members are Environment Institute of Kenya vice chairperson Linda Munyao, Rhino Ark Charitable Trust executive director Christian Lambrechts, Kenya Association of Manufacturers chief executive Phyllis Wakiaga, and Kenya Water Towers Agency chairman Isaac Kalua.

Yet other members are corporate lawyer Adil Khawaja, Kepsa’s Duncan Kimani, Cotu official Ernest Nadome and lawyers Faith Waigwa and Gideon Kilako.

EXPERTISE
Immediately the members names were announced, Forest Society of Kenya chairman Jotham Kagombe released a press statement saying the task force lacked a professional forester.

The society, which sits in the Kenya Forest Service, a government parastatal in the Ministry of Environment, said the members might not understand the issues at play.

But Mr Tobiko said the foresters would be co-opted into the task force, a move that is yet to happen.

Mr Kagombe also said several members of the task force, including the chairperson, are from environment-related civil society groups.

He said no one should be protected if they are found culpable of cutting unlicensed trees.

MANDATE
Among other duties, the task force is expected to determine the scale of illegal logging, destruction, degradation and encroachment of public and community forests, water towers and other catchment areas, as well as the associated impacts.

Also, it is to review the procedures, qualification and conditions for licensing of saw millers to determine their adequacy, fairness and appropriateness.

Sources at Kenya Forest Service, talking on condition on anonymity, said sibling rivalry with Kenya Wildlife Service has led to accusations of illegal logging.

LOGGING
In 2000 when Dr Richard Leakey (former KWS boss) was Head of Civil Service, then minister for State Marsden Madoka issued a gazette notice placing all parts of Mount Kenya forest in Central and Eastern provinces (Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Meru counties) under KWS.

This gazette notice is still enforced, alongside another one issued in 1932, which placed Mt Kenya Forest under the forest department.

Kenya Forest Service sets aside 170 million seedlings annually for forestation.

It is estimated the licensed logging industry employees 350,000 people with an investment of Sh550 billion, and with 862 timber manufacturers.