Ruto’s Green Theftt: How a Lazy Government Wants to Auction Our Forests to Cartels

Kenya is under siege, not from foreign invaders, but from its own government. President William Ruto, a man who thrives on shadowy deals, has now trained his greedy eyes on our forests.

The regime claims it wants to bring in private investors to manage public forests through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to “save Sh2.7 billion in tree planting costs.” But Kenyans, let’s not be fooled. This is not conservation. This is corruption wrapped in environmental PR.

What Ruto is proposing is not management — it is theft. It is state capture in its purest form, executed through firms he and his cronies secretly control. These so-called “investors” are nothing but proxies.

Forests are not just pieces of land. They are our lungs, our rivers, our rainmakers, our climate shield. To privatize them is to privatize life itself. Yet this government of lazy and incompetent thieves has decided to treat forests as chips on a gambling table.

We must ask: Is it truly impossible for the Kenyan state to plant trees? Or is it simply that Ruto and his boys cannot resist creating another scam to line their pockets? The answer is obvious.

Sh2.7 billion is not the problem. We lose more than that daily to corruption in inflated tenders, ghost roads, fake fertilizer, and imaginary hospitals. If the government were honest, it could mobilize schools, prisons, the NYS, and communities to plant trees at a fraction of the cost.

But no. Ruto’s regime is allergic to transparency. They would rather outsource everything to themselves, using companies registered in dingy offices along River Road, dressed up as “international investors.”

Lazy leaders outsource their duties. Corrupt leaders outsource them to themselves. And Ruto is both lazy and corrupt. Too lazy to govern, too greedy to let go of a single opportunity to steal.

Read Also: Britam Unveils EV Insurance As Kenya Accelerates Shift To Green Mobility

This is not the first time he has tried this trick. Remember the maize scandals? Remember fertilizer scams? The housing levy robbery? Every project is a chance for theft. Now the forests are next.

Kenya’s Constitution is clear. Article 69 obligates the state to protect and conserve the environment. It does not say forests should be auctioned off to cronies under a fake PPP.

To lease public forests to private hands is to betray generations yet unborn. It is to sell our rainfall, our oxygen, our rivers, and our biodiversity to cartels in suits. What could be more reckless?

We must call this regime what it is: incompetent, lazy, and thieving. Too incompetent to organize a national tree-planting drive, too lazy to mobilize communities, and too thieving to keep their hands out of public land.

Forests belong to the people. They are not bargaining chips for Ruto’s political friends. They are not ATM machines for shadowy briefcase companies.

If this policy goes through, it will not be trees being planted. It will be forests being fenced off, logged, and converted into private estates for the rich.

This is not a partnership. It is plunder. It is a cartelization of nature itself. It is turning Kenya’s green lungs into a cash cow for thieves in the State House.

We must not stand by silently. We must reject this scheme in its entirety. If it means going to court, we will. If it means mass action, so be it. If it means international exposure, let us expose it.

This government thrives on Kenyans being docile. But forests are not negotiable. They are too important to be sacrificed on the altar of corruption.

Every time Ruto announces a new “policy,” Kenyans should immediately ask: which cronies benefit? Because the answer is always the same: not you, not me, not ordinary citizens. Always the cronies.

What kind of leadership looks at a forest and sees not beauty, not rain, not rivers, but a tender? Only the leadership of thieves.

What kind of leadership sees citizens gasping under the weight of taxes, and still insists on stealing from their inheritance? Only the leadership of cowards.

Ruto should be ashamed. But shame is a foreign concept to a man who builds churches with stolen funds, who speaks of God while scheming with cartels.

We will not forgive this insult. We will not allow this betrayal to pass. Forests are sacred. They belong to all Kenyans, not to one man’s pocket.

If Ruto thinks he can auction our green heritage to his shadow firms and go unchallenged, he is mistaken. We will resist. We will litigate. We will expose.

We must remind him that presidents come and go, but forests remain. Kenya is bigger than one man’s greed.

Let every Kenyan know: this is not just about trees. It is about sovereignty. It is about whether we allow a cartel masquerading as a government to own every resource in this land.

Today it is forests. Tomorrow it will be rivers. The next day it will be oxygen. There is no end to their appetite unless we draw the line.

And we must draw it here. On the soil of our forests. On the roots of our trees. On the Constitution of our land.

Ruto, hear us clearly: Kenya’s forests are not yours to sell. Not now. Not ever.

Read Also: Green Planet Initiative 2050 Founder Faces Scrutiny Over Fraud