Five upland watersheds provide an estimated 75 percent of renewable surface water resources in the increasingly drought-prone country of Kenya. Combined, these five “water towers” support the livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers and pastoralists – as well as a growing number of commercial agribusinesses and hydroelectricity generating schemes – causing multilateral and bilateral actors to declare that the conservation of these areas is crucial for securing the emerging “green economy” in Kenya. Numerous state agencies have sought to reconsolidate their control over the country’s upland forest estate, deploying military and paramilitary forces to carry out the violent eviction of a number of traditionally forest-dwelling indigenous groups. Such efforts suggest a shifting conceptualization of these areas not simply as commercially valuable ecosystems, but increasingly as a kind of critical ecosystem infrastructure. However, certain elements within the state are simultaneously colluding with both commercial and artisanal loggers to illegally deforest portions of these same protected areas, in some cases allocating the newly converted land to political supporters.