How timber merchants are keeping afloat

James Ongul, Managing Director of James Timberland, a workshop and timber yard based at Magumu Ward in Nyandarua County. [Courtesy]

In the last few years, Kenya’s timber business has been beset with changing dynamics that have seen many abandon the trade altogether.

In 2018, the government imposed a ban on logging leaving timber dealers and its surrounding economy high and dry. The ban was to protect forests and raise the country’s forest cover.