Agency told to seek MPs’ nod on forest boundaries

MPs want the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to seek House approval before varying forest boundaries.

The committee on Implementation of House Resolution says section 28 of the Forest Act, 2005 requires any variation of forest boundaries to be supported by a resolution of Parliament.

The committee said the KFS did not present a proposal to the House for approval before declaring Bangale and Mbalambala in Bura Constituency as forest areas.

The MPs said 70 per cent of the land that has been gazetted as forest is rich in minerals such as gypsum.

“The committee notes that the variation of forest boundaries requires the approval of Parliament. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has not brought such a request to Parliament in accordance with the law,” said Soipan Tuiya, who chairs the committee, in an end-of-term report to the House.

The committee scrutinised a petition filed by Bura MP Ali Wario on behalf of the residents seeking the degazzetment of Legal Notices No. 39 & 40 of 2013 on the declaration of Bangale and Mbalambala as forest areas.

The team found that the gazettement of the land as a forest area was done in 2013 after the Forest Act, 2005 had come into operation.

The committee said the procedure for gazettement requires public participation as stipulated in the Third Schedule of the Act.

The MPs said it was not enough for KFS to use the District Development Committee and the full Council of the then Tana River County Council to inform the gazettement.

“Instead, more local community participation should have been done. The gazettement of these areas has denied the community access to the resources in the forest,” Ms Tuiya said.

The committee said section 28 of the Forest Act, 2005 stipulates that variation of boundaries or revocation of local or State authority forest “shall only be published following a proposal recommended by the Kenya Forest Service”.

 The proposal should have been subjected to an independent environmental impact assessment and public consultation in accordance with the Third Schedule, the committee said.