Logging licences will no longer be issued in an opaque manner, President William Ruto has announced.

Instead, the President has directed that this should from now on be done through open and public tendering.

This way, Kenyans will get value for forest resources, while transparency will develop the capacity of local industry to utilise them and boost job creation, he said.

“To make sure that we exploit our forest resources in a transparent and effective manner, the old method of allocating forest resources in a manner that is not transparent has to stop,” he said.

“Going forward, all public resources in the forests will be tendered for in a transparent manner.”

He spoke during the passing out parade of Kenya Forest Service (KFS) inspector cadets and forester trainees at the National Youth Service headquarters in Gilgil, Nakuru County, on Monday.

He congratulated the KFS leadership for demonstrable achievements, noting that the reforms instituted at the service two years ago have paid off with illegal logging reducing by 90 per cent in the same period.

Further, President Ruto pointed out, the service now largely runs its operations from internally generated revenue, an example that should be emulated by other government institutions.

“This year, we only supported KFS to the tune of KSh280 million. The rest of the KSh4.7 billlion budget was raised by KFS itself. I have the undertaking of the minister (Enviroment, Climate Change and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Adan Duale) and KFS that next year it will no longer require resources from the Exchequer. You are an example to other agencies that it is possible to run on internally generated resources,” the President said.

During the ceremony, 465 forest officers, the highest number since independence, and 102 forest cadets, the first ever to be hired, graduated.

They joined 2,600 forest rangers hired last year and those already in the service to drive Kenya’s environmental conservation and climate action agenda.

“These achievements speak volumes and consolidate our place as the environmental headquarters of the world,” he said.

He said KFS officers will supervise youth working under the ClimateWorX Mtaani project, which is aimed at greening and cleaning up Kenyan cities and towns.

President Ruto called on the graduates to maintain high standards of professionalism at all times and shun the temptation of engaging in vices that have damaged the image of KFS in the past.

“Do not allow your careers to be tainted by integrity issues, laxity or incompetence,” the President said.

He also announced that the government will give preference to locally manufactured timber products over imported ones.

“We have already taken steps as Government to make sure that the use of locally available forest resources take precedence over imported timber products,” he said.

Moreover, he said the Government will amend the Forest Conservation and Management Act (2016) so that stakeholders in conservation and climate action have effective support to pursue innovation and collaboration to turn forests and forest protection into vehicles of sustainable transformation.

Among those present at the function were Cabinet Secretaries Duale and Ms Rebecca Miano (Tourism and Wildlife), and the Chief Conservator of Forests Alexander Lemarkoko.