Millers feel pinch of 90-day logging ban

An Eldoret man loads tree seedlings in his car. The government is encouraging Kenyans to plant trees. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Scores of illegal saw millers have been arrested and tonnes of logs impounded in the North Rift.
  • Banks tighten the noose on timber product manufacturers.

Saw millers in several parts of the country are counting losses following ban on logging by the government.

The millers who had paid millions of shillings in royalties said they were not given enough time to harvest the trees.

“As much as we support agroforestry, we should have been given time to harvest trees which we had paid for before the ban was effected,” Mr Jackson Kiprono, one of the millers, said.

In the North Rift for instance, the millers paid Sh663 million as royalties for forest products in the last financial year.

SEIZED

Millers have suspended operations following instructions by Deputy President William Ruto to ban logging in public forests.

Scores of illegal saw millers have been arrested and tonnes of logs impounded in the North Rift.

The loggers were arrested by the Kenya Forest Service rangers while felling trees in Embobut forest, Elgeyo-Marakwet County.

Among the impounded logs include 320 posts of the precious cedar species.

They were seized in Tendelwa forest.

KFS says more than 25,000 hectares of public forest in the region is under illegal settlement.

BANK LOANS

Elgeyo-Marakwet County is the worst affected, with schools and social amenities built in public forests.

KFS intends to plant 25 million seedlings on 3,600 hectares of forest land in the region this season.

Trees will be planted on estimated 1,200 hectares of forest land in Uasin Gishu, 1,000 hectares in Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties each and 500 hectares in Nandi County.

Meanwhile, timber product makers are also incurring losses running to millions of shillings as banks tighten the noose on them over loans that are not being serviced.

MAU TOWER

In an interview with the Nation, the manufacturers said banks had lost their trust.

“Banks think we might not pay the loans. This is despite the fact that we have stocks wasting away due to the ban,” Mr Charles Kimita of the Timber Manufacturers Association said.

Bomet devolved government targets to plant 2.4 million trees this rainy season to protect rivers originating from the Mau Water tower.

The county is keen to increase the number of trees planted to 12 million in the next five years.

PLANT TREES

Deputy Governor Hillary Barchok urged residents to plant trees even though the county's forest cover was 12.7 per cent tree which was higher than the recommended 10 per cent.

“We appealing to the public to plant indigenous trees, especially bamboo in water sources and cut eucalyptus as they drain underground water," Mr Barchok said.