The Environment and Land Court has struck out a petition challenging the lifting of the logging moratorium , ruling that the questions had already been settled in an earlier case.
The petition was filed by Legal Advice Centre (Kituo Cha Sheria) seeking to quash the government’s July 2023 decision to lift the ban.
“The principal issues which were before the Court in the former Petition related to the constitutionality of lifting the logging ban, and were finally determined by a Court of competent jurisdiction,” Justice Christine Ochieng ruled.
The dispute traces back to a 2018 taskforce formed to examine illegal logging, forest destruction, degradation and encroachment on forests, water towers and catchment areas.
President William Ruto addresses congregants at St Mary's Catholic Church in Molo, Nakuru County during a church service on July 02, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The organisation asked the court to declare the announcement unconstitutional and sought damages and costs.
Kituo said the taskforce report estimated Kenya’s forest cover at 7.4 per cent of total land area, below the recommended global minimum of 10 per cent target cited in the petition.
It added that Kenya’s closed canopy forest cover then stood at two per cent of the total land area, compared to the African average of 9.3 per cent and a world average of 21.4 per cent.
The court heard that the Kenya Forest Service was indicted in the report for, among other things, overseeing wanton destruction of forests and the plunder of water towers due to rampant corruption, lack of accountability, unethical behavior, contravening the law by failing to issue timber licenses in accordance with the Forest Conservation and Management Act, and abuse of office.
The taskforce recommended an independent management team for Kenya Forest Service, investigations into alleged malpractice, protection of cedar, conservation zones and stronger controls over commercial forest plantations.
It also recommended monitoring saw millers’ compliance with licensing conditions and closer cooperation between national and county governments.
Kituo said the ban was lifted before those recommendations were implemented. It further alleged that loggers entered public forests and began cutting trees after the announcement.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and its director-general withdrew their preliminary objection against the petition.
A truck track carries logs on Njoro- Molo Road in Elburgon Town,Nakuru County on December 2, 2020.
Photo credit: John Njoroge | Nation Media Group
The authority argued that the case raised the same subject as an earlier petition filed by the Law Society of Kenya and decided by the same court in 2023.
Agreeing with NEMA, the court said the earlier case had dealt with the constitutionality of lifting the logging ban and involved the Attorney-General, Environment Ministry, Kenya Forest Service and NEMA.
“These are the same questions sought in this Petition, which the Court notes was also filed in 2023,” the court added, declining to examine Kituo’s arguments on constitutional environmental duties.
In the earlier LSK case the court had ordered implementation of the 2018 taskforce recommendations and an implementation matrix.
The order also required public information and participation in forest management, including Kenya Forest Service strategic, forest management and felling plans.
The litigation followed President Ruto’s 2023 decision to reopen state forests and was filed by LSK on environmental and public-participation grounds.
