Policies are great, but involving citizens works
Opinion
By
Lynet Otieno
| Aug 16, 2025
Kenya’s ninth Devolution Conference held in fast developing Homa Bay County was a beautiful event, themed “For the People, For Prosperity: Devolution as a Catalyst for Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice”.
While it has its fair share of challenges, it was evident that devolution, borne of the 2010 Constitution, has its credit, especially when people are involved. One highlight for me was reports about the achievements of the Financing Locally-led Climate Action (FLLoCA), a large-scale, county-led climate finance mechanism.
Proper and integrated planning, as well as deeper community participation, have led to implementation of more than 150 climate adaptation projects, which have also enabled funding of several water, conservation, renewable energy, and agriculture projects, all key in achieving what the theme mentions. Besides, 699 wards enjoy interventions that increase communities’ resilience.
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The FLLoCA model does not only include funding county-driven locally-led climate action, but also recognises the role of non-state actors, which include civil society organisations, to manage the usual gap between policies and true action. At the same event was this “Forest Sector Governance and the Journey Towards the Devolution of Forestry Functions to Counties for the Prosperity of Kenyans”, and I said let it happen soonest. Kenya is blessed with forests, which would work best if communities were more involved in manning them, even with existence of the policies that equally play a key role. Beyond the trees, forests are water towers and a huge source of carbon sequestration, beside other benefits. With the improving devolved units, it would be nice to slowly begin to trust the counties with the management of forest resources, even if partially. Counties are best placed to enhance the activities of Community Forest Associations (CFAs), grassroots organisations, as well as communities that live adjacent to forests, as per the Forest Conservation and Management Act 2016. Other than being the immediate beneficiaries of healthy forests, local communities know who destroys the forests, and are also likely to be the sources of forest fires. The idea of making communities have a sense of ownership and responsibility never really tires.
Around the Kakamega Forest, for instance, where forest resources are significant, active CFAs have helped curb illegal logging and promote sustainable harvesting. They have indigenous knowledge to manage some forest species, even those that may stray, and would not struggle to reforest, especially with dedicated tree nurseries, or ecotourism.
While the national government, through the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), has the primary mandate for public forests, co-managing the forests with the counties may also mean allocation of funds for forestry functions by counties, and developing county-specific forest management plans. These alone are a source of opportunities for the counties, that will also provide extension services, promote farm forestry, develop urban forestry programmes, and enforce local forest legislation. If the vibe in counties like Kisii and Kiambu that seem to be promoting agroforestry and commercial tree farming, with farmers urged to allocate 10 per cent of their land to tree planting, are anything to go by, then this could also be one way to maximise the economic potential within devolved forestry mandate.
Of course finances will be a challenge, but why not start with a few as pilot projects? In the end, Kenya may just unlock the full potential of its forest resources, strengthen forest sector governance and foster resilient landscapes that will not only enhance livelihoods, but also contribute significantly to Kenya’s climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.
The writer is a Contributing Editor at Mongabay