President William Ruto has announced that Kenya will soon stop importing furniture from countries such as China to boost the manufacturing capacity of the country.
While wooing residents of Elburgon in Molo on Monday, October 27, an area that predominantly relied on timber as a primary source of income, Ruto ordered the reopening of lumbering activities in Mau Forest Complex.
However, according to Ruto, the government will only allow the cutting down of mature trees.
“We shall reopen this timber factory here (Elburgon) because I have told my Minister of Trade, Lee Kinyanjui, that this tendency of importing furniture…seats and beds from China, must end. We will use our wood to make furniture,” Ruto stated.
Insisting, “Furniture to be used in Kenya will use timber made from here, and our Kenyan youth will create that furniture.”
In 2020, then-President Uhuru Kenyatta's regime instituted a furniture ban, blocking state agencies and ministries from importing furniture. However, the government may now expand that ban to the rest of the country. Ruto did not clarify when the decision will take effect or whether there will be any goods exempt from the ban.
The president said that the government will ensure that it sets up new wood-processing factories across the country to ensure that commercial trees are fully utilised.
Beginning next week, the government will also begin selling mature trees, in all forests across the country, to local sawmillers, according to the president.
Ruto assured that this move will play a key role in creating job opportunities for the youth and boosting the country's economy.
"We will start selling mature trees in our forests to local sawmillers from next week. And tomorrow I will have a conversation with sawmillers here so that they may revive the wood processing factory that was here," Ruto said.
The Head of State further affirmed that his administration will be at the vanguard in ensuring that the country plants 15 billion trees within the next 10 years.
Ruto's regime has already lifted the six-year-long logging ban, with reports indicating that the sale of timber from government forests more than tripled to a record high last year, and today's announcement is set to increase that number even higher.
