The county government of Nyamira has yet against issued a stern warning to people occupying forests in the region and urged them to vacate before the government takes an initiative of evicting them.
Environment CeC Kepha Osoro and other senior environment officers were summoned by the county governor Thursday evening to discuss the crisis which is said to be affecting various water catchments in the region.
Osoro who issued the warning after the meeting in his office said the county government will immediately release a list of affected areas and give a duration after which occupants will be evicted.
“It is true we held a meeting to discuss the illegal occupation of forests and come up with a solution that will be made public. But an overview of it is that we will issue a full list of affected areas and give a duration of vacation, after which we will intervene as a county government,” he told reporters.
Osoro said the county government was also set to deploy enforcement officers in various government forests to combat illegal lumbering activities reportedly taking place in those forests.
“I also want to say that we will not tolerate lumbering activities in those forests. We will soon deploy reinforcement officers to take charge as an initiative of protecting our environment from possible degradation and subsequent negative impact on water catchment areas,” he added.
Among the regions the county government will be targeting are Nyamiranga, Omonono and Mokomoni forests, which are said to be on a decline, leading to summoning of environmental officials by county boss John Nyagarama.