The government’s decision to lift the logging ban in the Mau Forest Complex has drawn sharp criticism from environmental groups, who have called for an immediate halt to President William Ruto’s directive allowing tree harvesting.
The Green Belt Movement and Greenpeace Africa said the directive, announced by President Ruto, risked reversing gains made in forest restoration and could severely undermine Kenya’s climate and water security.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the organisations demanded full compliance with a 2023 Environment and Land Court ruling, which required public participation, environmental assessments, and oversight before any resumption of logging.
They noted that no evidence had been presented to show these conditions had been met.
“This latest decision appears to disregard both the law and scientific evidence on forest conservation. Logging in a critical ecosystem like Mau cannot proceed without a clear framework that guarantees accountability and transparency,” the statement read in part.
In their demands, the two lobby groups called for an immediate publication of the government’s Strategic Plan and Felling Plans for public scrutiny and the establishment of a Multi-Agency Oversight Team to supervise all logging activities.
At the same time, they also called for representation of civil society organisations and community groups in the oversight team to guide harvesting, arguing that independent monitoring is essential to prevent graft and overexploitation.
“Allowing commercial interests to dictate forest policy will undo decades of hard work and expose millions to water scarcity and unstable weather patterns,” they warned.
The lobby urged that the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) recruit and train more forest guards to strengthen protection against unlawful logging and encroachment.
According to them, weak enforcement and limited manpower had in the past allowed loggers to invade protected forest zones under the guise of licensed harvesting.
The organisations further urged the Ministry of Environment to prioritise investment in commercial tree plantations on private land to reduce pressure on public forests. They noted that Kenya could meet timber demand sustainably if private sector participation was aligned with national reforestation goals.
Additionally, they also called for a full accounting of the economic cost of deforestation, which they estimated at over Ksh500 billion annually in lost ecosystem services and soil degradation. “Kenya cannot talk about economic transformation while undermining the very resources that sustain its economy,” they said.
The groups now want President Ruto’s administration to suspend the lifting of the logging ban until all legal, environmental, and governance safeguards are in place, warning that failure to do so could trigger legal action.
