Environment CS Keriako Tobiko is set to shed light on happenings at the Kenya Forest Service before the parliamentary Environmental committee next week.
Committee Chair
Kareke Mbiuki told the Star on phone on Sunday that the way the CS has handled matters at the KFS "is wrong."
"The task force is in place ... he should give it the opportunity to work. We are having heavy rains now and trees ought to be planted but we are a disorganised service as as they do not know if they will keep their jobs."
KFS announced key management changes geared at giving the organisation a boost on March 12.
Chairman Peter Kinyua said the board had appointed Monica Kalenda as the acting Chief Forest Conservator.
Kalenda replaced Emilio Mugo who stepped aside pending investigations.
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Mbiuki wondered why Alex Lemarkoko, the Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests in charge of Forests Protection and Security, was promoted.
"It is ironical that he had been promoted," he said noting he should have been axed.
Mbiuki said stakeholders that his team engaged last week and over the weekend raised concerns about tribalism at the ministry and its agencies.
"The stakeholders are reading in between the lines because the CS, PS and Nema chairperson all come from one region," he said.
Tobiko is the CS, Charles Sunkuli the PS and John Konchellah the chairman.
Mbiuki's team toured Aberdares, Nyandarua and Mau complex from March 15 to 18.
He said even though good work is being done by the Nyandarua county government, a lot needs to be done to educate Kenyans on commercial plantations.
"Replanting does not catch up with harvesting," he said but praised officers for good work progress on a boundary between Mau Forest Complex and settlements.
He urged government to pump more resources into Nyayo tea zone and scale up tree planting in places with massive destruction.
The chairman said enforcement
on tree harvesting and logging has been a major issue.
Mbiuki therefore urged the CS to ensure licences are given to investors so they move timber from their yards to customers.
He also wants them to process cut trees as they are being damaged by the rains.
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"TOBIKO BEING MISLED"
Regarding the changes at the service, Kipkelion West
MP Hillary Koskey echoed Mbiuki's sentiments
saying "the real culprits ought to have been kicked out".
Koskey said tribalism and hidden interests are among the reasons why abrupt changes were effected.
"We are seeing tribal alignments taking place," he said and asked Tobiko to guard against being misled.
"Tobiko knows the law as he has been DPP. However, he has chosen to blatantly
overlook the legal process of punishing
civil servants, leaving a lot to be desired."
The MP further warned the Minister against roadside declarations "which ended during [former President Daniel arap] Moi's regime.
He added that the Environment Principal Secretary ought to be a board member.
"The representative was removed and the position taken up by Peter Leitore," he said.
Concerning the task force Tobiko formed, he said it does not have a KFS representative so the contents of its report are likely to be watered down.
The team formed to look into forest management and logging activities has invited members of the public to volunteer information when it hits the ground next week.
Its members will be in Kisumu, Eldoret, Nyeri, and Isiolo on Wednesday and in
Nairobi and Mombasa on Friday when the public will submit memoranda and petitions.
Koskey wondered why some of the hearings were being held far away from community forest associations.
"How will people like the Ogiek and Ndorobos give their views when hearings are taking place miles away? Will they be provided with transport?"
The lawmaker hit out at Kinyua saying he only woke up after matters got out of hand.