Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya has announced a ban on livestock grazing in all public forests.
Speaking on Monday, May 13 during a tree planting exercise in Ngong, Kajiado County, CS Tuya said livestock have been destroying the trees planted in the government forests.
The Environment CS called on Kenyans to cooperate with the Kenya Forest Service and remove livestock from the public forests.
"This issue of grazing livestock in government forests has been banned through government policy. I urge citizens to please cooperate with the Kenya Forest Service so that we can remove all livestock from government forests because it's not sustainable. We cannot be planting trees in forests only for livestock to destroy them,” said CS Tuya.
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At the same time, CS Tuya said she is working with the Ministry of Lands to ensure that all forest boundaries are visible and known to the public.
The announcement comes days after Interior CS Kithure Kindiki ordered all Kenyans living in government forest land to leave immediately.
Speaking on Friday, May 10, the Kindiki disclosed that many people have encroached on government land.
The Interior CS mentioned that the government would reclaim and protect all the land that has been encroached on by some Kenyans.
“There are some people who have encroached on government forests. I want to make it clear that all those who have encroached on government forest land, must leave immediately.
“We are going to reclaim all our forest reserves as we increase the size of our forests and therefore any person who is living in the government forest must start leaving,” Kindiki directed.
He further pointed out that some people had managed to obtain illegal title deeds for land in the forests, adding that the government would not recognize the title deeds because they had been fraudulently issued.
