Conservationist Ask CS Duale to Fire KFS Board Members

Isaac Kalua, the Green Thinking Action Party of Kenya leader, has called for the overhaul of the board of directors at the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) claiming that they have failed to protect the forests as required.

The call follows the recent cases plaguing major forests in the country including Ngong Forest and Karura Forest in recent weeks involving both private and government developers seeking to hive parts of the forests to build all sorts of structures.

Earlier in the day, Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale revoked licenses issued to two developers to supposedly build a restaurant and a golf course in Ngong Forest.

As a result, Kalua expressed optimism about the new Environment CS and called upon him to extend his authority to the KFS board.

“I believe that Honourable Duale has got what it takes to bring these people to recommit. Things cannot continue as they have been in the last 40 years,” he added.

However, he also acknowledged that there were good individuals in the KFS but they needed to work together to root out the rot engraved deep into the board.

“I call upon KFS to take responsibility. KFS, just like KWS, has very good people. Why wouldn’t we have rangers that are honorary wardens, that can be able to do that,” he stated.

“Any attempt to get that going so that the public can get interested in this place never goes anywhere. They must take responsibility because they are the ones that are in there. Root out the wrong people because they are there.”

The conservationist stated that the body had failed to protect the country’s forests and instead got involved in selling indigenous trees for profit like the Sandalwood tree.

He further exposed ways that the tree smugglers were using to evade detection including using closed trucks instead of open ones while people with authority at the KFS looked the other way.

“Big names that you would be ashamed to know that they did this, not just now, but has been happening over the years. Some constituencies are inside the forests

If these conditions are not met, the conservationists stated that the President’s ambitious plan that aims at planting over 15 billion trees by 2032 will remain a mirage.