Trees won’t eat until Forest Bill promises to save their lives

We pride ourselves to be the most developed country in East and Central Africa. For a long time, we were the blue-eyed boy of western civilisation and an international forum on Africa wasn’t complete without Kenya being mentioned for its radiant people, massaging climate and world-class biodiversity. 

During winter in the Northern Hemisphere, tourists would flock here to relax on our sandy beaches watching our friendly animals in their natural habitat, while leaving us with a pile of dollars that made tourism our country’s number one foreign exchange earner for some time.

These conditions, which made Kenya the number one foreign travel destination, is now seriously under threat.

Two years ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched a nationwide forest restoration initiative. It came from a position of national concern that Kenya has a total forest cover of less than seven per cent, which wasn’t enough to shelter all school children studying under trees while competing with their age mates who fly daily to school.

It wasn’t the best advert for our education system. No country would like to be known for having kids who take turns sheltering from the sun while being taught from a mobile wooden board that last saw repair works when Taita Towett was still the Education minister.

Nowhere to hide 

For a long time, the government has fought off claims by public officials that rain comes from heaven and it’s God who gives rain and it’s Him who takes it back. But when we started cutting down trees and animals had nowhere to hide, they started knocking on our doors asking for shelter, and those who fear wild animals started accusing their political enemies of sending snakes to political gatherings to assassinate them where prayers had failed. 

Lions from the Nairobi National Park started visiting Langata homes asking zebras to come out for culinary talks, and residents were worried that crocodiles would also get ideas and visit Lang’ata for cool baths when they had no water to defend themselves with.

When the noise about this strange animal behaviour reached the ears of government, the Ministry responsible for forests launched an initiative to increase the country’s forest cover in partnership with the private sector. Much of it focused on the need to encourage Kenyans to diversify from planting well-manicured beards to growing trees. 

Those who couldn’t plant trees because they didn’t want problems with Nema for offering habitat to noisy birds were assured that bird noise is good noise.

We were informed that trees would help our kids sharpen their skills in hide-and-seek and ensure those trekking to job interviews would arrive on dry armpits. They would also provide twigs during pro-democracy rallies.

Endangered tree species

Even the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers were sent to degraded forests to shoot climate change with tree seedlings instead of high-calibre guns.

These efforts, aimed at convincing trees that they aren’t second-class citizens, have been bearing fruit; until someone presented the Forest Conversation and Management (Amendment) Bill 2021 in Parliament for consideration last week.

According to those who know, the Bill makes it easier for forest boundaries to be varied, registration of public forests to be revoked, and protection of endangered tree species to be nullified, among other things that have made trees all over the country refuse to eat since they saw the proposed amendments.

We’ve just come from the COP26 climate change conference where Kenya was ably represented by those who watched as trees died for a double-decker road.

Trees are watching the President and wondering what happened to the promise that he’d do everything in his powers to save them. They are currently begging for mercy at the hands of unscrupulous private developers.

The writer comments on topical issues; [email protected]