Kajiado residents and conservationists are opposed to the second phase of the standard gauge railway bisecting Nairobi National Park. They accuse the government of not involving them from the onset. “If we were consulted, we would have offered an alternative route,” Africa Network for Animal Welfare coordinator Daniel ole Osoi said yesterday.
He accused Kenya Wildlife Service chairman Richard Leakey of allowing the SGR to be constructed through the Nairobi National Park, despite being referred to respected conservationist. Osoi, who read a statement on behalf of residents, said the government encroaching on the park “with impunity with the pretext of fostering economic development”. “The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company pylons and the SGR installations are an eyesore, causing visual pollution in a pristine wilderness,” he said.
Osoi said as the custodian and protector of national parks and reserves, KWS should not have allowed the railway line to run through the park. “We are baffled by its failure to advise the government accordingly and halt the assault on the park by other government agencies,” Osoi said. “This is tantamount to betrayal and and a violation of the national wildlife conservation ethics of Kenya.”
He said residents will demonstrate today from the Galleria Mall to the KWS headquarters.
Osoi said they have enjoyed interacting with nature and are worried as the flora and fauna “will irreversibly be damaged by the project”. “We have enjoyed watching the birds, the animals and feeling the cool breeze from the park. Waking up and seeing the locomotive machine passing over those concrete pillars is unimaginable,” he said.
Osoi warned that if the SGR passes through the park, “those with a never-ending appetite for grabbing land” will take advantage.
Kenya Coalition for Wildlife Conservation and Management chairman Sidney Quntai said the cost of the SGR crossing the park is very high. “We can’t lose the park through dictatorial means. We have the power of the people, which has always reigned over any government,” he said.
On Wednesday, Will Knocker, who lives on the southern boundary warned that an invasive weed parthenium will race into the man-made route through the park, infecting what remains of the park.
Olosirkon Residents Association official Hamdi Keif Yusuf appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to “jealously” protect what his father had declared the most precious natural resource. “Mr President, see the destruction of your father’s legacy? This is not the cheapest option. It is very expensive and there are alternatives,” she said.
Yusuf said Kenya is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and touching the park will not only break these treaties, but that of the Masaai elders who gave their land for the park. The government recently settled on the final path cutting through the middle of the park.
The path has a viaduct that cuts through the middle of the park for six kilometres, dividing it into two almost equal portions. The railway line will be on pillars rising eight metres at the entrance into the park and tallest at 41 metres at the exit of the park.
This design contradicts assurances from the government and KWS that the endangered park would be spared.
Conservation groups have already opposed the new path and demand that the government takes the railway completely out of the park.
Uhuru is expected to launch the Nairobi-Naivasha leg of the SGR on September 26.