Take time off to enjoy picnics, eco-tourism in refurbished City Park

Several income-generating activities are planned for the newly renovated City Park.

They include eco-tourism, photography, nursery establishment, picnic sites, and grave repairs.

City Park Community Forest Association chairman Thuo Fiu said income-generating activities while empowering the CFA will go a long way in generating the much-needed attention on the need to preserve green spaces.

Fiu said a lot of partners have expressed interest in sprucing the once neglected gem.

“The Ismaili community has committed to donating 30 waste bins,” he said adding that the 63-hectare (155 acres) park is regaining its lost glory.

Nestled within Parklands and four kilometres from the Central Business District, City Park boasts about 998 tree and plant species.

The park is home to monkeys, the secret slavery, ticked honeybees, butterflies and more than 100 species of birds, an assessment by the National Museums of Kenya shows.

The park stores Kenya’s history including Mtego wa Panya Maze, Kibagare River, botanical gardens, the Jewish Goan Cemetery and World War 1 and 2 veterans' graves.

Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi’s grave and that of his wife Sheila are hosted at the park.

Murumbi served as Kenya’s second vice president under President Jomo Kenyatta, his close friend.

Murumbi in his will had asked to be buried next to his best friend Pio Gama Pinto.

However, the City Park cemetery where Pinto, had been buried was full on June 22, 1990, when Murumbi died.

Jomo Kenyatta had asked that an acre of the park be set aside near Pinto’s grave for Murumbi’s burial.

This is what is currently the Murumbi Memorial Garden which until recently had been neglected, creating a haven for crime. 

Following the neglect, thickets of thorny overgrown bougainvillaea plants had taken over.

Fiu however said the park is now clean, a move that has increased the number of visitors.

He said some of the partners that have expressed interest in working with the CFA include the Aga Khan Development Network, Ismaili Community, National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi county government and Diamond Trust Bank.

On September 24, the Ismaili Community, City Park CFA, and KFS among other partners organised a cleanup exercise at the park.

There was also a free medical camp from Aga Khan and City Eye Hospital.

Fiu said the sprucing up that has taken place has made the park attractive.

He said they receive an average of 2,000 visitors on Saturday and Sunday.

During holidays, they receive 5,000 people.

Reports of muggings, killings, violence and drug abuse became synonymous with parts of the park.

As illegal activities rose, the park lost its glory and residents and tourists shunned it.

Land grabbers also stole chunks of the lucrative land.

It is this neglect that prompted the national government to take over the park from the county.

In May 2020, through a directive by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, City Park forest was formally placed under the Kenya Forest Service to improve its management and conservation.

City Park was wrestled from the management of Nairobi County and its management was placed under KFS in June 2020.

The Kenya Forestry Research Institute was tasked with being in charge of research and development and together with the National Museums of Kenya established a module on the national botanical garden.

The National Museums of Kenya became responsible for the protection of national heritage and historical sites within City Park.

KFS has since deployed rangers to City Park to strengthen security.

Already, plans are in place to formulate a Participatory Forest Management Plan with Kenya Forest Service.

The plan will help rehabilitate the park in a structured manner.

Participatory Forest Management is an approach that deliberately involves adjacent communities and stakeholders in the management of forests within a framework, which contributes to the community’s livelihoods.

Fiu said a forest management agreement will then be signed between CFA and KFS for the management of a state or local authority forest.

He said indigenous trees will be grown as part of improving the experience of the park.

Edited by Kiilu Damaris