• Greenpeace Africa Community Manager Tracy Makheti said the move will affect the environment and even the local communities who depend on the forests.
• The High Court on August 3 issued orders blocking the executive order that lifted the ban on logging.
Image: TEDDY MULEI
Activists have said creating job opportunities should not be the government’s excuse to lift the six-year logging ban.
Greenpeace Africa Community Manager Tracy Makheti on Tuesday said the move will instead affect the environment and even the local communities who depend on the forests.
She said the rotting trees which was the government's reason for the move were illegible as they also serve a purpose.
"We are asking the government not to sacrifice our forests. We should focus all our energies on forestry generation because our forest coverage is barely the minimum requirement of 10 per cent yet the government has an ambitious goal of 30 percent forest coverage," she said.
The volunteer Activist Barbra Kangwana said it is unfortunate that in the middle of a climate crisis, what is supposed to act as a barrier which is the forests is done away with.
She said if the government is to create job opportunities, they should utilize forests sustainably and there are ways that work better.
"Even after the ban had been imposed in 2018, it took us a long time to just move the extra one percent of our forest coverage. We can't get to the 30 per cent with the lift of the ban moved," she said.
She added that there had been cases of rampant logging before and now that the ban had been moved it will even be higher.
Another volunteer activist Peter Bulimo said the court should look at the necessary patterns and halt the activity.
"The final ruling of the court will be on August 14 and we urge them to look at the necessary patterns so that the process can be halted," Bulimo said
"We want to see the regulations that the government is coming up with in safeguarding our forests."
The High Court on August 3 issued orders blocking the executive order that lifted the ban on logging.
The details emerged as the government insisted the ongoing destruction of forests in many parts of the country has nothing to do with the recent lifting of the ban by President William Ruto.
The Law Society of Kenya challenged lifting the ban, saying there was no public participation in such an important issue before the prohibition was removed.
"Orders are granted staying the government directive on the revocation of the Gazette notices previously issued for degazettement of forest areas/designating areas as forests and the re-introduction of the shamba system," Justice Oscar Angote ruled.