Kenya has faced many incidences of forest fire outbreaks during current dry season and the Kenya Forest Service called the season from February 1 to the starting of the rains as a National Fire Season.KFS said burning of plants inside or near the forest areas is against the law the fires were reported to have happened because of charcoal burning and farming. The director of KFS David Mbugua said the fires were caused only by these activities not by storm like in Europe. The forests that were affected include those in Nakuru, Busia, Meru, Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, and Nairobi and the only way to control the fires is to work together with the communities. The Kenya Forest Service will work together with the registered companies to train people on how to prevent, suppress and detect fire outbreaks.
Kenya loses 10,000 to 20,000 acres of forest to forest fires each year during the dry season in January to March and August to September and from December 2010 to January 2011, 75 acres have been burnt down and more will be burnt if no better policy is carried out.
KFS has put 2,500 workers to look out for the forests and each is to guard 700 acres of forest because the budget is low to employ more than the current number.
The Forest Act 2005, instructs measures to be used when achieving licenses for charcoal burning on private farms, forests and trust lands but the Act has been ignored therefore this has led to the cutting down of trees and human settlement on the forest areas.
