• He said the President lifted the ban after multiple complaints from residents of areas that were mainly supported by timber industry.
• Odinga said he was obliged to the pleas by the people after seeing the condition of the town that was once teaming with business.
Elburgon town in Nakuru has been given a new lease of life after the government lifted the 14-year-old logging ban on public and community forests.
The lifting of the moratorium which was imposed in 2008 was announced by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga.
Speaking in Elburgon during his tour of Nakuru County, Odinga said he was only communicating a government directive issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He said the President lifted the ban after multiple complaints from residents of areas that were mainly supported by the timber industry.
Raila who was accompanied by his running mate, Martha Karua Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui among other leaders said he consulted Kenyatta on the need to lift the ban.
"The last time I was here, you told me that the town had stagnated and people were living in abject poverty after losing jobs," he said.
Odinga said he was obliged to the pleas by the people after seeing the condition of the town that was once beaming with business.
Elburgon was a vibrant town in the 1970s and 1980s when Mau Forest Complex was intact with both plantation and indigenous tree cover.
Most of the rich men in Nakuru and beyond among the late Njenga Karume and the late Stephen Kung'u originated from Elburgon where they horned their business acumen.
However, the fortunes of the small town dwindled in 1987 when their businesses were interrupted and large chunks of Mau Forest hived off for human settlement.
While hundreds of people who were working in the timber industry were left jobless, their employees quickly switched to other businesses leaving only one major saw miller, the Timsales.
Many of those business people joined the Public Service Transport and gave forth to big fleets such as the Mololine Sacco.
Facilities such as Hotel Eel were left to die while hundreds of workers converted government land into a slum where they live with their families.
A resident, Peter Mukiri said today's directive has given the town a fresh breath.
"It might take several decades for the town to be as active as it used to be but we are hopeful," he said.
He said the directive would also help other towns across the country that were dependent on the timber industry.