Forest Service wants number of servicemen increased

The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) now says that the country needs an extra 3,000 forest warders to contain terrorism threat, poaching and the current forest destruction.

The KFS Commandant Alex Lemarkoko said that the current number of 2,000 rangers was not adequate as cases of poaching, illegal logging and terrorism continue to rise.

The recruitment exercise held on Thursday saw 244 recruited to join the service that has always argued that it is understaffed and ill-equipped.

Addressing the press after the exercise, KFS Senior Deputy Director Monica Kalenda admitted that staffing and funding still remain a challenge.

She noted that there is a need to double the current number of rangers so that they can contain and conserve the current forest cover.

“We are currently under staffed and underfunded and this has affected our operations with one ranger manning 800 acres instead of 400 acres,” she said.

During the exercise at the National Youth Service (NYS) Training School in Gilgil, over 7,000 participants from all counties turned up for the exercise only for the service to recruit 244.

Thousands of participants were turned away for either presenting fake documents or failing to meet the minimum requirements threshold.

Kalenda said that if their concerns were addressed, the current forest cover would drastically increase from the current 7%.

On the recruitment, the senior officer defended the move to conduct it in a central location saying that it was meant to cut on the exercise cost.

 “Those recruited will report to the training right away and they will undertake a four month course before being posted to various parts of the country,” she said.