The Environment Court on Thursday extended the ban on logging after the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) moved to court to challenge President William Ruto's order to lift the ban that was put by the former administration in 2018.
LSK filed a suit to challenge the decision to lift the moratorium on July 2023, where the court put a temporary freeze.
The Environment Court ruled that lifting the moratorium was done without proactive disclosure of information and public participation.
Justice Oscar Angote also barred the government from issuing logging licences except for 5,000 acres that comprise matured trees.
While lifting the ban, Ruto had argued that it had hurt Kenya economically, especially in areas where people depended on logging as their main activity.
"We have decided to open up the forest and harvest timber so that we can create jobs for our youth and open up businesses," Ruto had stated while lifting the ban.
He added that the decision would not destroy the country's water catchment areas as his administration would plant 15 billion trees in a decade.
While the government had told the court that Kenya had 26,000 hectares of mature and over-mature forest plantations, Justice Angote has only allowed the felling of trees on 5,000 acres.
LSK had argued before the Environment Court that there were no scientific reasons or research that had been done to justify the lifting of the ban.
Additionally, the Eric Theuri-led body argued that there was no specific environmental assessment impact or public participation leading to the lifting of the moratorium.
During the institution of the moratorium, the former administration had revealed that it was meant to help the country meet its climate change goals.
Since the ban was instituted, Kenya has seen a steady growth of forest cover from 5.9 per cent in 2018 to 8.83 per cent in 2022.
