Governors want to be allowed to manage forests

By Standard Reporter

Nandi, Kenya: Conflict is brewing between county governments and the Kenya Forests Service (KFS) over management of government forests in the North Rift region.

The county governments want to be custodians of forest resources, which they argue, are in their proximity and that they should be consulted by the national government in decision making.

This comes as KFS stated that the county governments have no control over gazetted forests since the functions of the service have not been devolved.

KFS Director David Mbugua recently told The Standard that functions of the service had not been devolved per Gazette Notice No. 117 of 2013.