The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) intends to build 60 housing units for its staff across 17 of the country's 172 forest stations in a new upgrading plan.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

According to the Service, the housing units will comprise two-bedroom and three-bedroom houses in all the selected stations, meant to ensure the staff live in absolute comfort.

KFS confirmed this initiative on June 17 during a meeting with key infrastructure leaders and the State Department of Housing for the force, which has approximately 6,000 employees.

“At a consultative meeting chaired by the Deputy Director in charge of Administration & Infrastructure Development, Isack Wekesa, KFS and a delegation from the State Department for Housing and Urban Development led by Architect Hassan Yusuf deliberated on plans to jointly develop staff housing in 17 KFS stations,” stated KFS.

📌 What You Need to Know

The planned units will be constructed jointly with the State Department for Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with KFS to see its staff get not only affordable but proper housing.

Available data indicates that, for forest rangers and field officers at station outposts, housing challenges are acute, with many rangers forced to live in temporary tents or improvised iron-sheet structures near remote forest outposts.

The housing project is meant to address the massive staff housing deficit, severely exacerbated by recent expansions in the "Green Army" and the recruitment of 2,700 new forest rangers early this year.

In addition to officer housing, KFS is erecting barracks at stations like Karura Forest and Ngong Hills to accommodate National Youth Service (NYS) personnel, who assist KFS with large-scale tree seedling propagation, a programme that attracted widespread condemnation.

At the Karura Forest headquarters on Kiambu Road, KFS completed 14 brand-new ranger housing units and integrated a freshly tarmacked 3-kilometre internal road network to ensure efficient staff mobility.

Due to inadequate infrastructure, many frontline officers, especially rangers, are forced to live in temporary tents or outside their designated camps.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke