REF: PROTEST AGAINST THE DIRECTIVE TO REOPEN LUMBERING ACTIVITIES IN THE MAU FOREST COMPLEX.
East Africa Climate Change Network
P.O.Box 8668-00200
Nairobi,City Square
Eastafricaclimate@gmail.com
11th November 2025.
His Excellency Dr. William Samoei Ruto, CGH.
President of the Republic of Kenya
Harambee House.
Nairobi, Kenya
REF: PROTEST AGAINST THE DIRECTIVE TO REOPEN LUMBERING ACTIVITIES IN THE MAU FOREST COMPLEX.
Your Excellency,
We write to register our strong protest and grave concern following your recent directive dated 27th October 2025 authorizing the reopening of lumbering activities within the Mau Forest Complex. This directive poses an imminent threat to one of the most critical water towers and ecological lifelines in the East and Central African region such uncalled for political directives coming in the eve of Conference of Parties happening in Belem Brazil.
The Mau Forest Complex, extending from Kenya in Rift Valley through Nakuru County and forming part of the greater transboundary forest system stretching towards the Congo Basin, serves as the headwater for numerous rivers that feed into Lake Victoria and eventually the River Nile. The ecological integrity of this forest system is therefore not merely a national concern but a regional and continental matter with direct implications for millions of people across several African nations.
Your directive comes at a time when African states are engaging in constructive discussions towards the abrogation and reformation of the colonial-era 1929 River Nile Treaty Agreement, which unjustly restricted equitable utilization of the Nile waters by upstream nations. It is therefore paradoxical and regrettable that Kenya custodian of one of the Nile’s vital catchment areas would simultaneously sanction activities that threaten to degrade this watershed.
We urge Your Excellency to immediately rescind this directive and instead reinforce conservation efforts in the Mau ecosystem. Sustainable livelihoods and economic development, which can be achieved through, forest restoration, ecotourism, and community-based conservation models rather than renewed deforestation.
We reiterate that Kenya Government is a signatory to 17 Sustainable Development Goals/Paris Agreement, thus your directive is in contradiction and violation of International Laws and treaties that Kenya has consented and anccented to.
Failure to reverse this decision will compel us, in concert with regional and international environmental partners, to seek legal redress through the appropriate international forums, including the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations Environmental Assembly, to safeguard this critical ecosystem for present and future generations.
Your Excellency, leadership is best measured not by expedient decisions, but by the courage to safeguard the future of our planet. We therefore appeal to your conscience and duty to the Kenyan people and the wider African community to reconsider and revoke this environmentally destructive directive.
Respectfully,
Kamotho Githinji.
Executive Director
East Africa Climate Change Network.