Charcoal and firewood dealers in the North Rift region are up in arms following a three-month logging ban that was recently imposed by the government.
The dealers from Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet and Trans Nzoia counties have lamented that the ban had subjected them to a loss of millions of shillings.
Speaking in Eldoret during a public hearing organized by a recently formed task-force on forest conservation, the charcoal and firewood dealers asked that they are allowed to continue with their business.
They said they use wattle trees which has no environmental implications if cut town.
Led by the Uasin Gishu charcoal dealers chairman Joel Madahana, they said most of them had already cut down trees hence the ban might cause them huge loses.
“We have hundreds of bags in our stores which we cannot sell because of this ban and by the end of the 90 day period we might have lost all of them,” said Madahana.
“We ask that we are given permission to sell the ones we have because it has been our source of livelihoods,” he added.
However, Linda Munyao, a member of the task-force said they had no authority to lift the ban noting that they are only mandated to collect views from the public and present to the President for further actions.
Munyao however assured all that had presented their views that they will be put into consideration when developing a final report.
“What we are doing is collect views from the public and I want to assure everyone who has presented their suggestions on how best to conserve the forests that we shall consider each one of them when drafting a report which we shall submit to the President soon,” she said.