The Environment and Land Court has blocked President William Ruto from lifting the six-year logging ban.
The court ordered a 14-day stay on Ruto’s contentious repeal of a logging moratorium introduced in 2018 to curb the rapid disappearance of forests.
When the prohibition was lifted in July, Ruto said that allowing old trees to die while sawmills were importing timber was "foolishness" and that the action would lead to job growth.
The Law Society of Kenya contested the ruling in court, claiming that the government had not fully consulted the public about the decision's effects or presented a scientific rationale for lifting the ban.
The legal advocacy group, now known as X, posted on Twitter on Wednesday that the court had "granted the Law Society's application staying the implementation of the policy directive."
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The court also issued orders halting the state's granting of logging permits in its judgement from August 1st.
The case will be heard in court again on August 14.
Conservationists fiercely opposed lifting the ban, saying it was contrary to Ruto’s pledge to plant 15 billion trees and bolster Kenya’s forest cover.
