Green Belt challenges new law opening forests to road projects

Imenti Forest in Meru County where the government plans to construct a State Lodge and airstrip. [Couretsy]

Environmental lobby groups have moved to court to challenge the Forest Conservation and Management (Amendment) Act, 2026, warning that its implementation could open Kenya’s protected forests to roads, power lines and other infrastructure projects with irreversible ecological consequences.

The petition, filed by Green Belt Movement and Just Act, seeks to suspend the new law assented to by President William Ruto on May 29, arguing that it was enacted through a flawed legislative process and unlawfully grants the Kenya Forest Service powers to authorise easements and wayleaves through gazetted public forests. They say the law was enacted without adequate public participation.

The petitioners seek interim orders, warning that once roads and utility corridors are permitted in Kenya’s 2.59 million hectares of gazetted public forests, including the Mau Forest Complex, the Aberdares, Mt Kenya, Kakamega, Karura and Ngong Road forests, they will cause irreversible ecological destruction.

“The implementation of the Act that took effect on June 16 will result in fragmentation, loss of ecological continuity, disruption of hydrological cycles, and severance of wildlife corridors which cannot be remedied by any subsequent court order or monetary award,” Green Belt Movement states. “We seek conservatory orders suspending implementation of the Act and barring State agencies from processing or granting easements, wayleaves and special user licences in public forests pending determination of the case.”

The petition targets two new provisions, Sections 56(2)(da) and 56(2)(db), which vest in the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) the power to grant easements and wayleaves for public roads and utility infrastructure over gazetted forest land.

The amendment became Act No. 15 of 2026 and commenced on June 16.

Primary discretion

The petitioners argue that the amendment strips National Land Commission of its constitutionally protected mandate over public land while dispensing with mandatory environmental and social impact assessments as well as community consultation requirements.

“An easement and a wayleave over public forest land constitute an alienation of rights in public land, requiring NLC initiation and oversight,” the petitioners argue.

They add that by vesting primary discretion in KFS, the amendment revives the Commissioner of Lands model that the Constitution of 2010 and the establishment of the NLC were intended to abolish.

The lobby groups also cite a 2025 court ruling obtained by the Green Belt Movement in which the High Court held that KFS’s power to issue Special Use Licences is not absolute and must comply with Article 10 of the Constitution.

In that case, the court reduced a KFS-approved wayleave through Karura Forest from 51.64 acres to 0.1233 hectares.

According to the petitioners, Parliament enacted the amendment in response to that ruling, effectively converting conduct criticised by the court into statutory authority and extending it to all of Kenya’s 2.59 million hectares of gazetted public forests.

They challenge the legislative process, alleging a Senate public participation notice published on May 6 listed April 11 as the deadline for submissions, an anomaly they describe as “a legal nullity” because many would reasonably conclude the deadline had already passed.

They also claim the public participation period lasted only six days instead of the standard 30 days under Senate Standing Orders, that no county-level hearings were conducted, and that the Bill was passed by the Senate just a day after the committee report was signed.

The matter is scheduled for an inter partes hearing on July 6 before Presiding Judge Oscar Angote.