Ruto Orders Kenya’s Forest Service To Raise Funds To Sustain Itself
President William Ruto announced on Monday that the Kenya Forest Service will change its financial system, requiring it to fund its budget.
This change is part of his administration’s ongoing financial reform efforts.
Speaking at the pass-out parade of Kenya Forest Service (KFS) inspector-cadets and foresters in Gilgil, Nakuru, the President directed that the KFS begin managing its own finances next year.
According to Ruto, the decision was made after KFS generated Ksh4.7 billion on its own, independent of government funding.
Furthermore, Ruto revealed that the government only gave the agency Ksh280 million, breaking the record of how initially the government had been using funds to run the agency.
Glad to see the reforms we instituted at the Kenya Forest Service two years ago are finally paying off with illegal logging reducing by 90 per cent in the same period.
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) October 28, 2024
Further, KFS now largely runs its operations from internally generated revenue, reducing dependency on the… pic.twitter.com/aERwanMTQf
“I have the undertaking of the Minister (CS Aden Duale) and the Kenya Forest Service that from next year, KFS will exit from requiring resources from the exchequer and they will run their affairs using their own internally generated resources,” Ruto directed.
“At the same time, because of the reforms that have been carried out, this year we only supported Kenya Forest Service to the tune of Ksh280 million. The rest of the Ksh4.7 billion budget is raised by Kenya Forest Service itself,” he added.
The Head of State also challenged other government agencies to follow the KFS’s lead and generate their own resources to reduce reliance on Treasury withdrawals.
“Congratulations to you and you serve as an example to other agencies to run on internally generated resources,’’ he stated.
“It is therefore important that we develop capacity as I have said including the human resource.”
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Kenya Forest Service will join the list of other government agencies that have managed their own budgets, closely following their counterparts at the National Police Service (NPS).
To promote police independence, Ruto delegated authority over budgetary allocations to the Inspector General in 2022.
Ruto also directed KFS management to ensure that all tenders are awarded in an open and transparent manner.
“All public resources in the forests will be tendered for in a transparent clear manner so that we get value for the resources that we have in our forest and also develop capacity for our industries,” he directed.
Ruto Orders Kenya’s Forest Service To Raise Funds To Sustain Itself
