A report by the Auditor General has revealed that there is a possible loss of Sh147.7 million that was pumped into the promotion of bamboo.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said in the report that the Kenya Water Towers Agency injected the money to establish a national bamboo growing demonstration centre at Kaptagat Forest in Elgeyo Hills in the 2018-19 financial year.
The demonstration site was launched in 2019 to promote bamboo commercialisation among communities living adjacent to forests.
“The site was to be used for production of bamboo seedlings and to serve as a community learning centre. However, the audit revealed that the site was neglected and had minimal activity towards establishing a bamboo demonstration centre,” Gathungu said.
“This is despite the agency having utilised approximately Sh147.7 million between 2017-18 to 2021-22 towards establishment of the bamboo enterprise.”
Some of the bamboo species that were to be planted at the site include dendrocalamus yunannensis, dendrocalamus asper, yushania alpina, dendrocalamus giganteus, bambusa tulda, bambusa vulgaris, dendrocalamus strictus and bambusa bambos.
Farmers were to have the option of choosing the kind of bamboo suitable for their areas.
According to the Bamboo Association of Kenya, an umbrella body that brings together players in the sector, Kenya has only one indigenous bamboo species, yushania alpina growing naturally in the country.
The indigenous bamboo covers 140,000 hectares (345,947 acres) and is restricted to the five major water towers that include Mt Kenya, Aberdare Ranges, Mau ecosystem, Mt Elgon and Cherangany Hills.
The audit further reveals that the agency’s efforts to promote honey production as an alternative livelihood among the communities living adjacent to forest recorded poor results.
“Out of the 1,135 beehives distributed by the agency to eight groups spread across five water towers in the audit sample, 665 were inspected and revealed colonisation in only 93 hives, representing 14 per cent colonisation rate,” Gathungu said.
Gathungu said the beneficiary groups were issued with both beehives and honey processing tools and equipment.
However, only one out of the eight groups had established a honey processing factory.
Gathungu said that the challenges experienced by beneficiaries included pest infestation, lack of skills on apiary management and poor location of apiaries.
The audit said similar observation of low success rates were made in the charcoal briquette enterprises intervention in Maasai Mau block.
Gathungu said physical inspection revealed that the briquette enterprises was small in scale and would not have economic impact on beneficiaries.
“Further, interaction with group members revealed that the agency did not provide them with mechanical crusher, despite being critical for large scale production. In addition, the group members were not trained on charcoal briquette making, which led to production of poor-quality briquettes.”
This, the audit shows, limited the production of briquette to members own household consumption.
The audit attributed the inadequacies in alternative community livelihood interventions to inadequate capacity building of beneficiary groups, failure to provide them with technical assistance and lack of monitoring by the agency.
KWTA is a state corporation under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry established in 2012 through a gazette notice.