The Kenya Wildlife Service is under great pressure to give up more than 100 acres of prime conservation land inside the Nairobi National Park for construction of the Nairobi Southern Bypass linking Mombasa Road to the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway. This has emerged barely three weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta signed a Sh15.9 billion loan deal with the Chinese Export-Import Bank for construction of the road, which will be built by the China Road and Bridge Corporation.
The 28.6km dual carriageway exiting Mombasa Road at Ole Sereni Hotel and entering the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway at Kikuyu town is expected to arc into the Nairobi National Park at Wilson Airport. This arc is likely to detach approximately 100 acres of what the KWS has called virgin land with high biodiversity value from the 28,900-acre Nairobi National Park including some 11km of trees planted by the Nairobi Greenline initiative. “We don’t want to lose this land,” said Tom Sipul, KWS Deputy Director for Corporate Services. “We have been saying no for 20 years, but there is too much pressure.”
Sipul told the Star that the road was to run along the park’s eastern fence but due to the proximity of Wilson Airport, it was necessary to curve the road away from the airport and into the park. According to aviation law, there should be no development for at least half a kilometre after the end of the runway. Wilson Airport’s runway is only 200 metres from the original path of the bypass.
The KWS is slowly accepting that they may not save this land and the little creatures that reside in it. Although, the KWS Board of Trustees maintains that they do not want to give up the land, they say they could agree only if KWS is adequately compensated. They are now negotiating for compensation to allow them buy more land in Kitengela and extend the park in that direction. “Compensation has to be of equal value, not equal acreage,” said Sipul. “We are not interested in the money. We want conservation land.”
Should KWS be compensated at market value for each acre of land, they could buy a lot more than the 100 acres to be lost since the price per acre in the Lang'ata area be will many times over compared to land in Kitengela. “The park could get bigger,” said Sipul, “I think the sheep and goat land in Kitengela – which belongs to the government –should become part of the park”. Questions, however, linger as to whether the new land at Kitengela will have the same conservation value as the one to be taken by the bypass.
Two months ago, the KWS prepared a cabinet paper to be presented by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. They are still awaiting a response from cabinet even as Roads minister Franklin Bett announced two weeks ago that the road project would be commissioned 10 days after the signing of the loan deal.
Meanwhile, conservationists have raised alarm over this takeover of park land and are petitioning the KWS not to give it up. “This land can be saved,” said Wanja Kimani, co-ordinator of the Nairobi Greenline Initiative. The Nairobi Greenline initiative was launched in February 2010 and has so far planted 120,000 trees to protect the eastern border of the park. The southern bypass now threatens to undo most of this initiative’s efforts by uprooting thousands of young trees that are now thriving in its path.
Dr Paula Kahumbu of the Friends of Nairobi National Park has said that if the bypass is allowed to take the proposed course, it will “effectively destroy the Nairobi National Park” thereby adversely affecting national tourism revenues generated by the unique park. Nairobi National Park is the oldest park in Kenya. It makes Nairobi unique in being the only capital city in the world to have a wildlife park within its boundaries. The park generates more than $500,000 (Sh42.5 million) each year and together with the adjoining Nairobi Safari Walk “it is the most important environmental education facility in Kenya”.
Conservationists also fear that the government is setting a very bad precedent by taking over the park land. “Is protected land the only option?” asks Wanja Kimani. She fears that should the government succeed this time, other land will be lost. “Next they will take up part of Uhuru Park to expand the Uhuru Highway, and there will be not stopping them once they take this course,” she adds. “The road is necessary to ease up traffic congestion, but the team building the road should explore other options on where to build it.”
KWS is still evaluating the value of the land in economic and ecological terms. “We are not just looking at the market value of the land in terms of acreage; we are looking at the overall land use value including biodiversity loss,” said Sipul who maintains that even though you may not see many large animals in this land, it has many small wild things. “A tick is part of biodiversity,” he says, “Who can value biodiversity if not KWS.” The outcome of the KWS cabinet paper concerning this road will determine the fate of “the World’s Greatest City Game Park” as Nairobi National Park is fondly called. For now, the big question is, will the KWS succeed in saving this land, its biodiversity, and its tourism dollars?
