Why KDF has not handed over Uhuru Park to City Hall - Duale

Nairobi residents will have to wait a bit longer to access Uhuru and Central parks.

Cabinet Secretary for Defence Aden Duale on Tuesday told the Star that works were still ongoing in the parks.

However, he said once complete, the Kenya Defence Forces will hand over the amenities to the county government of Nairobi.

"We shall hand over when all the amenities are complete soon," Duale said.

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja also attested that contractors are still on site.

"They (KDF) haven't handed over. The contractors are still at Uhuru Park and are also not done at Central Park," he said.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna over the weekend raised concerns over the prolonged closure of Uhuru Park.

The iconic park has been closed since September 2021 as it underwent renovation and was facelifted by the Kenya Defence Forces.

In a letter addressed to CS Duale, the Senator said that he had received complaints over the closure of the park

Sifuna stated that the facility was to be reopened in December 2023 but remains closed.

The Senator wants CS Duale to disclose whether there are still ongoing works at Uhuru Park.

Sifuna also wants to establish whether the facility has been officially handed back to the county government.

"If not handed back, what underlying issues continue to delay the return of the park to public use," reads the letter.

He also wants Duale to make it clear when Nairobians can expect to resume use of the park.

Uhuru and Central parks have been under renovation under the KDF through defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services since September 2021, to bring them up to international park standards.

The parks have not yet been opened to the public.

However, Uhuru Park has been opened twice to host the Nairobi festival in December 2022 and 2023.

Uhuru Park before renovations was also a hot spot for political rallies.

The park is synonymous with hosting huge political rallies in the lead-up to general elections.

On June 15, 2010, six people were killed and hundreds were injured at Uhuru Park where two explosions hit a political rally targeting the "NO" campaign rally for the constitutional referendum.

Recently on January 30, 2018, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga had himself sworn in as the “people's president."

In 2002, the park was a favourite ground of the Narc coalition party after it unveiled Mwai Kibaki who won the presidential election.

Going down memory lane, in 1989, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai led protests against the government's plans to construct the 60-storey Kenya Times Media Trust business complex in Uhuru Park.

As a result, she was forced by the government to vacate her office and was vilified in Parliament, but luckily her cry was heard and the government's response led foreign investors to cancel the project.

In August 1996, a group led by the then Catholic cardinal and archbishop of Nairobi Maurice Michael Otunga burned a heap of condoms in Uhuru Park in protest of artificial contraception.

However, with the new renovations, the green spaces will play an important role in environmental pollution management, the nation’s socioeconomic development, and citizens’ physical well-being.

The military has been constructing the parks whose new look will involve installing modern facilities and amenities which the parks have been lacking.

The parks had been neglected for many years and needed an upgrade.

Uhuru Park will boast manicured lawns, maintained trees, enhanced walkways and green spaces.

There will also be an outdoor Amphitheatre with an audiovisual screen, an events garden in the shape of Nyatiti, and a children’s play area with bouncing castles and merry-go-rounds.

The iconic Nyao statue and Mau Mau freedom fighters' monuments have been updated as well.

The man-made lake has been transformed into a major waterfront, complete with a Swahili restaurant.