Public outrage as viral videos reveal massive deforestation in Kenya’s key water towers

Ordinary citizens, environmental activists, and civil society groups have taken to social media and public platforms to condemn what they describe as a blatant ecological betrayal by President William Ruto’s administration.

The undated videos, which show a shocking endeavour at widespread logging, have struck a deeply sensitive nerve across Kenya.

One of the videos shows a procession of large white trucks loaded with logs, seen attempting to climb a steep, dusty dirt hill near a forest edge.

As the tyres kick up a massive cloud of dust, and as the vehicles struggle on the unpaved incline, onlookers stare on, evidently shocked at the unfolding scenes. 

Residents, onlookers, motorists and bystanders gather along the embankments and lower roadside, creating a way for the lorries to trudge on, unobstructed.

Another video shows a different angle of the same long, continuous line of fully loaded timber trucks parked or slowly crawling along the narrow paved road cutting through grassy, hilly terrain.

Fact-checkers have identified the location as Keraita Forest, a premier conservation and eco-adventure area located in Kiambu County near Kimende Town. Others have pointed out the same activities in the Aberdares.

The videos openly highlight the unbearably large-scale logging transport operations in these rural Kenyan highlands, capturing both the challenging dirt-road logistics and the public helplessness of timber extraction in these communities.

As a result, Kenyans online have voiced profound disappointment, accusing the government of sacrificing long-term ecological stability for short-term commercial forestry revenue and infrastructure expansion.

The ongoing logging and land clearing, Kenyans have noted, stands in sharp, glaring contrast to President Ruto’s highly publicised environmental commitments. 

Under the 15 Billion Tree Pledge, President Ruto committed to a national goal of planting 15 billion trees over a ten-year period, aiming to raise Kenya’s tree cover from under 10 per cent to 30 per cent by 2032.

The administration even instituted a special national tree-planting public holiday to encourage citizen participation. 

However, following the lifting of the commercial logging ban in 2023, when the administration ended a six-year ban on commercial logging in public plantation forests under the argument that mature timber was rotting while local timber markets suffered, critics argue that enforcement weakened and paved the way for aggressive tree cutting and environmental degradation.

Additionally, through infrastructure legislation, environmentalists have pointed to recent legislative amendments and executive support for projects such as roads through the Aberdares and urban developments that permit clearing inside protected public forests.

Domestic conservationists and active Kenyans have contended that while the Ruto administration markets Kenya internationally as a leader in green energy and climate action,  local policy enforcement has prioritised commercial timber interests and aggressive development at the expense of indigenous biodiversity and protected catchment areas.

Citizens have also labelled the government's approach contradictory - asking citizens to plant saplings on weekends while permitting the felling of mature, ecosystem-critical trees during the week.

"Watching these videos of massive lorries hauling felled trees out of Keraita Forest is a complete heartbreak. Our critical water towers are being degraded in broad daylight, leaving local communities helpless. What happened to strict conservation enforcement?" one Kenyan asked.

Another distraught Kenyan wrote: "Planting saplings does not replace 50-year-old indigenous trees that secure our rainfall and biodiversity. Pushing infrastructure and commercial logging through protected forests like the Aberdares is an ecological betrayal we will pay for for generations. Ruto and his greed will pay for this one day!"

On her part, X user Esther Wanjiku said: "From Karura to Kimende, Kenya’s natural ecosystems are under siege. We need immediate policy accountability, transparency on logging permits, and an end to commercial exploitation inside protected public forests. Our water towers are not for sale! Ruto is suffocating this country!"

As a symbol of Kenya’s environmental liberation fought for by the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, Karura Forest kicked off the widespread concern of tree clearing, infrastructure encroachment, and controversial management shifts by state agencies. 

Meanwhile, Keraita Forest and the Aberdares, which form part of the broader Aberdare Ecosystem, serve as one of Kenya’s principal water towers supplying water and hydroelectric energy to millions. 

Now, these vitally critical forests are witnessing severe tree harvesting and clearing - all with the evident blessings of Ruto's government. 

Environmentalists have continued to warn that continuous canopy destruction and proposed road cut-throughs threaten wildlife corridors, accelerate soil erosion, and compromise water catchments.

Historically, forests like Karura and the Aberdares have long been battlegrounds against illegal land grabbing, state-sanctioned logging, and deforestation. 

The resistance led by Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in the 1990s established a legacy where forest destruction is viewed not just as environmental damage, but as an attack on public heritage. 

Furthermore, critics have noted that as critical water towers continue to remain under threat, Kenya still relies on five primary catchments - including the Aberdare Range and Mount Kenya - to feed its rivers, fuel hydroelectric generation, and supply agriculture. 

"Loss of forest cover in these key zones directly aggravates extreme drought cycles, threatens food security, and disrupts urban water supplies. Sadly, no one in this entire government appears to be concerned at the rate at which we are quickly haemorrhaging the country," X user Nduta Janice wrote.