The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) has denied that illegal logging is going on in Ngong Hills Forest. It says the tree felling that caused an uproar online is a licensed harvest of mature plantation trees.

In a statement on Sunday, October 25, the service responded to videos and photographs that had spread on social media over the past few days, some of them claiming that trees were being cut at night. One image showed a stretch of felled trees and another showed a trailer loaded with logs.

56 hectares under tender

KFS said the work is taking place in the Kibiku Forest Block of the Ngong Hills ecosystem. It covers 56 hectares of mature forest plantation, meaning trees planted for commercial use rather than natural forest.

The service said the contract was awarded after a competitive bidding process. It added that the harvest complies with the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015, the Forest Conservation and Management Act, the Constitution and the Forest Harvesting Rules, 2016.

KFS did not name the contractor or say how much the timber was sold for.

The night logging claims

Under KFS rules, harvesting may only take place between 6am and 6pm. The claims of night-time cutting are therefore at the centre of the dispute, because felling outside those hours would break the rules.

On the photo of the loaded trailer, the service said it had been told the vehicle had broken down and was being repaired. It said it was still verifying the circumstances.

"The photograph alone does not establish that harvesting activities were taking place at night," KFS said in the statement, as reported by Capital FM.

The service did not say how long its verification would take.

Replanting and community role

KFS said the harvested sections will be considered for replanting, with the local Community Forest Association taking part through the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS). Under the scheme, farmers grow crops between young trees and look after the seedlings until the new plantation is established.

The service asked members of the public with concerns to seek clarification at the nearest forest station rather than share unverified material. It also urged people to report suspicious activity to the police or to KFS through its official channels.

Public anger over tree cutting

Kenyans have been increasingly vocal about tree cutting. Earlier this month, Nairobi residents protested the felling of mature trees along State House Road. In Nakuru, Governor Susan Kihika warned the Kenya Urban Roads Authority against cutting down jacaranda trees without county approval. In August, KFS investigated reports that about 350 young trees had been cut overnight in the Mount Elgon ecosystem in Trans Nzoia.

Ngong Hills, on the edge of Nairobi in Kajiado County, is a popular hiking spot and an important water catchment. The forest reserve contains both indigenous vegetation and commercial plantations of exotic species such as pine and cypress. KFS manages these plantations on a cycle of planting, harvesting and replanting. Conservationists have long called for more openness about that cycle so the public can tell a legal harvest from illegal logging.

Public forests are also under closer watch because of the national campaign to grow 15 billion trees by 2032, which has put a spotlight on how forests are managed and how much tree cover is lost.

KFS did not say when harvesting in the Kibiku block is expected to end.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons/safaritravelplus (CC0) (Ngong Hills ridge and wind farm); Capital FM (felled logs in a plantation forest, file).