On a quiet morning in the Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary, Nairobians woke up to a dreadful sight.

It was not the sound of progress but a prelude to destruction. Where children once chased butterflies through indigenous thickets, bulldozers now trampled the soil.

No one had asked the community. No meeting had been called. No notice had been pinned, and hence no one, including members of the Community Forest, was aware.

Yet their forest was being invaded by a private developer. This is the quiet theft of our public forests, disguised in the language of bureaucracy.

It begins with a letter, a permit, and a signature granted swiftly and quietly by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS).

Too often, these early permits are issued without proper public participation and without the required Environmental Impact Assessment licences from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).

This is not only wrong, it is illegal.

Our Constitution is clear. Article 69(1) (d) mandates the state to encourage public participation in the management, protection and conservation of the environment.

The Forest Conservation and Management Act (2016) further recognises that forests are a public good, to be protected and managed in trust for the people of Kenya.

Yet the practice of issuing permits before a full environmental assessment and public consultation has become all too common.

By the time the public is made aware, the trees are already on the ground, the stumps already decaying, and when communities protest, they are met with excuses or silence.

Let us be clear, public forests belong to the people, not the Kenya Forest Service. KFS is merely a custodian, not a landlord, not a merchant, not a master.

It was created to serve the public interest, not private greed. Wangari Maathai once said, “Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing.”

She knew that forests are not just about trees; they are about dignity, sovereignty, and justice. She risked her life because she understood that a forest is a people’s heritage, not a government commodity.

What we are witnessing today is a betrayal of that legacy.

The early permits issued behind closed doors are a symptom of deeper rot. They signal a return to the old ways, where backroom deals determine the fate of forests, and where economic interests trump ecological survival.

With Kenya losing over 12,000 hectares of forest cover every year, climate change is no longer a distant threat. It is here. Flash floods, prolonged droughts, food insecurity and other severe climate change signs are not coincidences.

There are consequences. Every tree that is felled illegally today will haunt us tomorrow.

That is why these early permits must be abolished, not reviewed or “better managed”. They serve no purpose but to bypass the law and silence the people.

Any process that allows destruction before deliberation is unjust and unsustainable. We call upon the President, who has often spoken passionately about restoring Kenya’s forest cover, to walk the talk.

The buck stops with him. If Kenya is serious about achieving the 30 per cent tree cover target by 2032, we must stop cutting before we start planting.

Protection must come before pledges.

We also call upon Parliament to exercise its oversight mandate and demand full transparency in how forest land is allocated and managed. Public lands are sacred.

They are not chess pieces in political games or rewards for the connected. To civil society, the media, conservationists, and ordinary Kenyans, this is not the time to be silent.

If you love this country, you must defend its forests. Visit them. Watch them. Speak for them. Question any activity that looks suspicious.

Demand documentation. Demand the NEMA licence. Demand the minutes of the public meeting. If they cannot show you, they should not cut. The forests do not have a voice, but you do.

They are living systems that feed our rivers, regulate our weather, and hold our nation together. To destroy them is to sign our own death warrant.

The writer is a Lawyer and the Advocacy Manager at the Green Belt Movement