Isaac Kalua, the leader of the Green Thinking Action Party of Kenya, has called for an overhaul of the Kenya Forest Service’s (KFS) board of directors, stating that they have failed to safeguard the woods adequately.
The appeal comes in the wake of recent cases involving both private and government developers attempting to take portions of the country’s main forests, including Ngong Forest and Karura Forest, to build various structures.
Earlier in the day, Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale withdrew licenses provided to two developers for allegedly building a restaurant and a golf course in Ngong Forest.
As a result, Kalua voiced confidence in the new Environment CS and urged him to expand his powers to the KFS board.“I believe that Honourable Duale has got what it takes to bring these people to recommit.
Things cannot continue as they have been in the last 40 years,” he added.
However, he agreed that there were decent people in the KFS, but they needed to work together to dig out the rot that was deeply embedded in the board.
“I call upon KFS to take responsibility. KFS, just like KWS, has very good people. Why wouldn’t we have rangers that are honorary wardens, that can be able to do that,” he stated.
“Any attempt to get that going so that the public can get interested in this place never goes anywhere.”Adding, “They must take responsibility because they are the ones that are in there. Root out the wrong people because they are there.”
The conservationist said that the organization failed to protect the country’s woods and instead became involved in the profitable sale of indigenous species such as the Sandalwood tree.
He also revealed how tree traffickers avoided detection by utilizing closed trucks rather than open ones, while KFS officials looked the other way.
“Big names that you would be ashamed to know that they did this, not just now, but has been happening over the years.
Some constituencies are inside the forests,” he stated.
If these prerequisites are not realized, conservationists believe that the President’s ambitious pledge to plant over 15 billion trees by 2032 will remain a mirage.
