It took an on-site investigation by senior Kenya Forest Services (KFS) officials from the head office to discover that some corrupt cartels in the timber industry have been colluding with local KFS officers to steal from the Exotic forest plantations belonging to the government.
This followed counter claims by small-scale saw millers and their large-scale counterparts of which they were accusing each other of colluding with the local KFS officials in the allocation of the number of trees one was to harvest depending on his/her bribe and not as per paid for trees according to documents from the headquarters.
In Kapchemutwa forest of Elgeyo Marakwet country, acting KFS commandant Wilson Ole Lebo and his officers from Nairobi had to manually count several unharvested plantations where they discovered that most of the saw millers had been allocated more than double what is in the records from KFS headquarters.
In one instance, a miller had paid for 400 trees but manual count found out that the miller would end up cutting down 800, which is double what he/she is supposed to be allowed as per the payments.
After the exercise, Ole Lebo said his fact-finding team will make it's report to the national office and those found culpable will be dealt with according to the law.
“We have all seen what happens on the ground. We will go write our report then the law will take its course,” said Lebo on Wednesday.
“As KFS we have a mandate to ensure effectiveness in the management of forest resources and an officer doing the contrary will not be entertained,” he added.
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