Visitors start flocking to Michuki park

Michuki park is receiving a steadily increasing stream of visitors: 100 on Saturday, over 100 on Sunday, and about 150 on Monday and Tuesday each.

The park was officially opened on Friday 14 August by President Uhuru Kenyattta. Entrance is free. No entrance fee is charged.

“The reopened Michuki park is timely as it provides added green space for city dwellers to enjoy serenity during this Covid-19 period,” said Chief Conservator of Forests Julius Kamau.

On Sunday morning many of those who were in the park had not known what to expect and were scrutinising the clean and freshly grassed space intently.

“I go to church near here,” said Eugene Muhando, a young banker. “I wanted to bring my friends, but I thought I just can’t take them for a walk here. I have to check it out first.”

He was delighted by what he found. Muhando said he would be visiting often for “the experience of nature and the sound of running water and birds singing”.

The park is well appointed, with dozens of wooden benches. It has an open-air amphitheatre, tree nursery, medicinal plant garden, and fruit orchard. Nairobi River, which runs through the park, is sparkling clean at this point. Staff at the entry off Kijabe street were friendly.

“This park is amazing to me. That is why I have come,” said Kenneth Ndua, who had been the third visitor to the park on Saturday and had come back bringing his three sons on Sunday.

“It is a very important basin for Nairobi River. It is now somewhere safe you can go,” said the entrepreneur who stays in Kasarani and was happy to make the 17km trip twice. He could be seen showing his sons the name tags on the well labelled trees.

Gabriele Tembele, 46, said visitors could feel safe. “I saw it before. It was heaped with garbage and sometimes had a stench. It’s a massive change.” He played skipping games with his children on the walkway.

A young man working in the nursery, which is stocked with indigenous trees, said the park was “a new thing and people were coming slowly by slowly”.

A plaque on a marble plinth explains that the park, formerly Mazingira Park, covers 12.30 hectares and is part of the national government’s initiative to create urban green spaces to sequester carbon and provide place for relaxation and recreation.

It is a joint project of the Ministry of Environment, Kenya Forestry Service, Kenya Forestry Research Institute, the National Environment Management Authority, Nairobi Metropolitan Services, and National Museums of Kenya.