Wood-carving is an industry that provides income to many households through trade of prized wooden artifacts.
It is estimated that over 6,000 wood carvers in Kenya are engaged in this business with over 250,000 people economically dependent on this growing trade

Inside the tightly secured walls of Kitui GoK prison, in Kitui County, Mr. Wambua imparts wood carving skills to a group of inmates.
“In addition to furniture making, woodcarving is a skill preferred by male inmates. This initiative aims at equipping inmates with
technical skills which they can depend on to earn an honest living once set free,” states Wambua.

Despite this promising venture, there is a clear indication that the wood-carving business is threatened by rapidly
diminishing wood supplies. The Officer-in-Charge of Kitui GoK prison workshop, Mr. Bernard Nyaga, observes that the quantity and quality
of wood for carving is slowly becoming scarce.

“At the beginning hard wood was readily available from brokers but with time the supply dwindled. We resorted to salvaging
Jacaranda wood from fuel wood supplied to the prison kitchen. But with time this Jacaranda, which was readily available within Kitui,
is also becoming scarce. I wonder what wood carvers will use next,” wonders Nyaga.
Wood carving ingenuity in Kenya is associated with Mutisya Munge, a Kamba African soldier who served in the British army
during World War I in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). It is said that Munge learnt the skill from Makonde carvers who lived along the
Mozambique-Tanzania border. Upon his return in Kenya in 1918 he imparted the skills to his tribesmen in Machakos. The first workshop
was established at Wamunyu town. Subsequently, the wood carvers traded with European settlers and local officials in Nairobi and Mombasa.
In those early days wood artifacts were made solely from Dalbergia melanoxylon (Mpingo*) or Brachylaena huilliensis (Muhuru)
wood, some of the most rare tree species sought to date for their extremely high commercial value. As the carving business bloomed,
Mpingo which is the number one choice of wood carvers in Africa, was exploited to exhaustion by the 1940s. Similarly, Muhuru which
was readily available in semi-deciduous tropical forests of the Central Highlands and the lowland dry coastal belts dwindled in 1956
due to overharvesting for carving, fuel-wood and export to India.
Despite its scarcity, demand for Muhuru remained high and by 1974 collectors scavenged for its stumps and roots where the
trees had once been felled.  Today only a few trees of the two species are remaining at the national parks and forest reserves where
effective control of illegal logging remains a challenge.