Ties between Forestry officials, logging cartels under scrutiny

A team from the Kenya Forestry Service (KFS) in Nairobi are in Elgeyo Marakwet to investigate claims of corruption involving their officials and saw millers in the area.

This follows numerous complaints from residents of Kapchemutwa that local KFS officials are colluding to steal exotic trees from forests in the area.

The team from Nairobi was led by acting Kenya Forest Service commandant Wilson Ole Lebo.

In Kapchemutwa Forest, the officers had to manually count several unharvested plantations where they discovered that most of the saw millers had been allocated more than double of what was indicated in records at KFS headquarters.

Mr. Ole Lebo said his team will report to the national office and those found culpable be dealt with according the law.

Some saw-millers however took issue with the exercise saying the Nairobi team should not have involved local residents in counting.

Preliminary findings indicate that more than 4000 trees had been assigned to saw-millers illegally just from one plantation. The forest has 14 plantations.

A mature tree goes for an estimated Ksh.7,000-10,000 depending on its size