Kakamega Forest, the only remaining tropical rainforest in Kenya, is threatened with extinction.
From the outside, the thick canopy gives the impression of a forest that has been shielded from destruction. Don’t be deceived; it is a camouflage.
A walk through the forest tells a different story. Wanton destruction of the forest by both large-scale loggers and charcoal burners has left the foliage of the once blossoming forest bare.
The forest has experienced severe degradation during the past three decades. Presently, more than half of the indigenous forest cover is bare. The closed canopy indigenous forest covers a paltry 25 per cent of the gazetted forest area.
The forest is currently estimated to have over 5,000 hectares of bare patches while thousands of hectares of the “rehabilitated” sites are under coniferous trees thus undermining the forest’s ecological and biodiversity functions.
Unlike other forests that bore the brunt of illegal loggers, Kakamega’s virgin forest with its rare indigenous mature trees was a gem that attracted even the Government officials who were supposed to protect it from loggers.
Indigenous trees felled
The forest was gazetted in 1932 with an area of 15,480 ha, of which 13,888 ha comprised virgin indigenous forest cover.
Large-scale logging started in earnest in the late 1980s when the Nyayo Tea Zones Corporation came knocking with a proposal to create a buffer against encroachment. A large chunk of the forest came tumbling down under the guise of clearing way for a 100-metre perimeter tea plantation around the forest. Residents and leaders alike hailed the project as a brilliant idea in an area where tea was not widely grown.
Thousands of hectares of indigenous trees were felled indiscriminately. From then on, it was plunder unlimited. With the custodians being the culprits, the villagers watched helplessly as the big timers pillaged their heritage. Looking at it in retrospect, residents now say the establishment of the tea estates acted as smokescreen for the provincial administrators and politicians to rape the virgin forest.
Kakamega County Council chairman Samuel Mwanzi says the idea to plant a 100-metre tea belt around the forest was noble but was abused.
“At Isecheno area, where tea was planted, the original indigenous forest is intact. It is unfortunate that tea was never planted on the entire perimeter of the forest,” he said.
Factory project never took off
Although tea was planted on part of the land, thousands of hectares remained fallow even after the forest was cleared.
“The loggers came in with big saws and carried thousands of lorries full of hardwood as we watched,” says Dominic Masabi, a resident.
The destruction went a notch higher when the Government decided to construct a Sh311m tea factory on the fringes of the forest. The reasoning then was: What is the need to have a tea plantation without a factory to process it?
Provincial administrators and powerful politicians scrambled for the permits to harvest the trees that were to be felled “to clear the ground for the factory”. While the small charcoal burner was arrested and charged for destroying the forest, the large-scale loggers enjoyed massive protection.
“I think they were arresting charcoal burners for fear that they would finish the best trees for them,” says Masabi sarcastically.
Needless to say, the factory project has never taken off but thousands of hectares of trees were felled.
The National Environment Management Authority approved the construction of the factory, thus opening the way for the raping of what once used to be Kenya’s only virgin forest.
Law enforcement haphazard
Part of the forestland was also annexed to Shikusa Maximum Prison and the Western Kenya Agricultural Society of Kenya Show Ground among other institutions.
Agricultural encroachment, human settlement, forest fires and indiscriminate logging by small-scale illegal loggers have also contributed to the degradation.
The Forest department is not only ill equipped to ward off plunderers but also lacks the legal muscle to stop powerful provincial administrators and politically well connected loggers. More information
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