•The 54km road was to cost Sh4.4 billion, be completed by 2023.
• Environmentalists suggest, smaller routes, fears state will override Nema.
Image: File
Image: COURTESY
The Sh4.4 billion upgrade of the road cutting through the Aberdares Forest, a vital water tower, has been blocked by the environmental regulator.
It would involve massive forest and moorland ecosystem disruption and cut through the habitat of many elephants. It has more than 3,500 elephants.
Environmentalists have suggested upgrading two smaller roads.
But could the project proceed, despite massive objections from Nema and environmentalists? Could Nema be overridden?
The National Environment Management Authority once again said the 54-kilometre road of such magnitude cannot be allowed. The aim was to widen it and make it an all-weather road.
Mamo Mamo, acting Nema director-general told the Star, "We will not allow the project to pass through the moorland which is a very sensitive ecosystem. As Nema, we have not approved the Environmental Impact Report ... We have declined to approve it. For us, it should not go on."
The acting DG spoke on Sunday during the World Wetlands Day at Enapuiyapui Swamp in Nakuru county.
Mamo urged the government to comply, adding that Nema is are working closely with the agencies involved in the massive project.
"We think they [the government] will comply and they have given the indication that they will comply," Mamo said.
Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala and Kenya Wildlife Service director-general John Waweru have been silent about the project.
Nema carries out Impact Assessments to assess and monitor all environmental phenomena to ascertain any possible changes in the environment and their possible impact.
The authority also monitors the operation of any industry, project, policy or activity to determining its immediate and long-term effects on the environment.
This is not the first time the authority has declined to give a go-ahead to the Aberdares road.
Nema, in a letter to Roads PS on October 27, 2009, had indicated that the authority was unable to issue an environmental impact assessment license for the upgrade.
This, the environmental agency said, was because the proposed project would have a massive negative impact on natural forests.
Nema said the Aberdares is one of the five water towers and it provides water to Nairobi city and feeds Lake Naivasha, the backbone of Kenya’s horticulture.
The five main water towers in Kenya are Mt Elgon, Mau, Cherangany Hills, Aberdares, and Mt Kenya.
They provide approximately 75 per cent of Kenya’s water resources.
The Nema report was copied to the KFS, KWS, Kenya Tourism Federation and East Africa Wildlife Society.
The government through Kenya National Highways Authority wants to upgrade the Ihithe-Aberdare Forest-Kahuruko-Ndunyu Njeru road from earth to an all-weather surface.
Conservationists are opposed to the project.
A source has confided to the Star that the upgrade could soon start — in disregard of all objections.
The road would connect Nyeri and Nyandarua counties. It is to be completed by 2023.
Local conservation group Rhino Ark Charitable Trust has written to Kenha Director-General Peter Mundinia raising objections.
In a letter dated November 29, the trust says it has serious grounds for concern about the environmental impacts of the proposed upgrade.
“Our concerns are not to hinder the development of the local communities and business owners but to conserving the environment for the benefit not only of the local community but all Kenyans,” the trust said.
The trust said the road will cut through the moorland ecosystem which is important for water catchment and wildlife.
“It will also cross the moorlands of the Aberdares that are extremely fragile ecosystems and gazetted as a national park," it said.
The letter is copied to the PS Infrastructure, PS wildlife, KFS board Chair, and KWS board chair.
Others copied in the letter include KWS director-general, chief conservator of forests, Nema director-general, CEO Conservation Alliance, CEO WWF-Kenya and regional director International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Africa Wildlife Foundation, Africa Conservation Centre, Green Belt Movement, East Africa Wildlife Society and Kenya Tourism board were also copied.
The road would start at Ihithe market in Nyeri, cut into the Aberdare Forest National Park at Kiandogoro Gate before going through Mutubio gate in Kahuruko.
The project then goes through Njabini-Ol Kalou road in Ndunyu Njeru.
A 2017 report said the elephant population in the Aberdare ecosystem was 3,568.
It conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Rhino Ark, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and Kenya Forest Service.
Medium to a high concentration of elephants is in the moorland through which the road will cut through.
“The proposed upgraded road will cut the Aberdare ecosystem into two leading to further fragmentation of the forest and the moorland,” the Trust said.
The trust said there are two existing roads that require upgrading. These are Thika-Mangu-Flyover road that is tarmacked but in bad shape.
The other road is Thika-Gaturu that needs to be tarmacked.
“These two roads could provide good alternatives to the proposed upgrading of Ihithe-Aberdare Forest-Kahuruko-Ndunyu Njeru road,” the trust said.
Edited by V. Graham)