Spades and twigs used to fight Mt Kenya blaze

The Kenya Forest Service struggled for nine days to tame the wildfire in Mt Kenya because of inaccessibility and the apparent lack of firefighting equipment. KFS rangers could be seen fighting the raging fires using spades and twigs.

On Thursday last week, Environment CS Keriako Tobiko toured parts of Mt Kenya Forest affected by the fire. He was accompanied by KFS acting chief conservator of forests Monica Kalenda.

Tobiko observed Community Forest Association members and other volunteers working to put out the fire that razed over 100,000ha of moorland.

Strong winds, lack of adequate equipment and personnel and difficult terrain are among the challenges that slowed down suppression of the fire.

The CS appealed for concerted efforts from other relevant ministries and affected county governments to deal with the fire disaster. He spoke at the joint command centre at Chogoria gate, Tharaka Nithi county.

“All six counties in the Mount Kenya ecosystem should consider a unified approach to tackling the prevailing fire and prepare a strategy for handling a similar situation in future,” he said.

Tobiko decried the approach taken to deal with environmental disasters. They often lead to unrecoverable loss of biodiversity, yet minimal resources are allocated to tackle the problem.

Building institutional capacity through training in fire fighting and providing adequate equipment is paramount, he said.

The recent fire outbreaks are being detected and tracked via the Modis Fire Information System at the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development.

With the ongoing dry spell season, more fire is expected and, therefore, RCMRD is on high alert to detect and issue alerts through the fire information system on fire occurrence.

Alerts are normally shared with KFS and the Kenya Wildlife Service and beyond.

Rhino Ark Charitable Trust executive director Christian Lambrechts blamed the fires on people encroaching forests. He praised private companies for helping overwhelmed authorities.

"A lot of resources were mobilised. People have to look at the strength of private companies. There is no doubt that some of those private sector companies had equipment and skills," he said.