MCAs plea to Senate for Act change to guarantee forest cess
By Wycliffe Kipsang, August 6, 2025Elgeyo Marakwet County Assembly has petitioned the Senate to amend the Forest Act to enable it to merge the Mining Act of 2016 to ensure that a fixed percentage of revenue generated by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) be allocated to county governments hosting forests.
Kapchemutwa Ward MCA Stephen Cheruiyot, who moved the motion at the County Assembly on august 5, 2025, said 37 per cent of the total area of Elgeyo Marakwet county is covered by forests making it among the most forested counties in the country and should at least benefit from 20 per cent of the total revenue collected from activities in the county.
Environmental management
“The funds allocated to counties shall be earmarked specifically for forest conservation, environmental management, promotion of community forest initiatives and sustainable forest-based livelihoods,” said Cheruiyot, who is also the Leader of Majority.
He said the counties hosting suffer a lot of damage during harvesting of mature trees, with their road network being damaged by heavy machinery ferrying the forest products, but lack the mechanism to ensure that the damaged roads are repaired.
“This Motion is timely. Even if you look at the close of June 2024, KFS had generated Ksh9.7 billion from the sale of trees and out of that revenue, none of this went to the hosting communities. That’s why we are asking the Senate to support this petition and follow it to the latter so as to ensure that counties hosting forests get to benefit,” said Cheruiyot.
“We also appreciate the fact that the government is planning to roll out fencing of forests. But other than the 17 user rights, the community should also benefit from anything that is monetary from permits, cess, levies they charge and even eco-tourism activities happening inside the forest, that 30 per cent should go to the hosting county for the local community to benefit,” added the ward rep.
Hosting forests
Emsoo Ward MCA Christopher Cheboiboch, who supported the Motion, said communities hosting forests have for many years, conserved forests and should benefit from the revenue generated.
“When there are fire outbreaks, these are the first people to respond and should be supported through the improvement of the road network and the refurbishment of local amenities like hospitals and schools,” said Cheboiboch.
Assembly Water, Environment and Climate Change Committee chairman Joshua Kipruto, on his part, expressed optimism that the Senate will consider the petition in a bid to ensure that the people benefit from the natural resources they have in their region.
“We have the largest forest cover, but our people are yet to fully reap its benefits. As much as the community helps in conserving the forests, we have not seen any impact on the community. Our people should also benefit from carbon credits generated from areas hosting forests. The National Forest Act should be amended to mirror the Mining Act 2016,” said the Kapsowar ward MCA.
The MCAs said they support President William Ruto’s directive towards the conservation of the environment, but added that the government should ensure that counties hosting forests should benefit from carbon credits.
“The Senate and the National Assembly should come up with a mechanism on how such resources are going to be shared so that counties bearing the biggest responsibility are properly compensated,” said Cheruiyot.