• There are over 100 decisions that the board has made expecting action.
• The proposed fencing of the Nairobi National Park is also said to have caused friction as it would render the park a zoo.
The decisions made by the Kenya Wildlife Service Board are being disregarded by authorities, the Star has learnt.
A source within the service last week said the board is increasingly becoming helpless.
“There are over 100 decisions that the board has made expecting action,” the source who requested anonymity said.
Other decisions that the board has opposed include the hosting of Koroga Festival and the World Rally Championship at the Hell’s Gate National Park.
The proposed fencing of the Nairobi National Park is also said to have caused friction as it would render the park a zoo.
“When a system is politicised, good things that people want to hear will be said,” the source told the Star.
The source said some of the things being done are likely to compromise the ecological integrity of the country.
It is understood that a road project cutting through the Aberdares Forest and which is at the design stage had been opposed by the board.
Failure by authorities to take professional advice has seen staff at KWS leave in droves. The legal department is the most affected.
The source said the Aberdare road project will destroy the integrity of the park.
“We asked for an Environmental Impact Assessment for the road through Aberdares National Park. These things do not happen as they are good on paper and not in practice.”
The state has been pushing the road project even as a letter in possession of the Star shows that the National Environment Management Authority had raised concern over it.
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 massive impacts on natural forests.
Nema said 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 project is however at an advanced stage.
The Ihithe-Aberdare Forest-Kahuruko-Ndunyu Njeru road is set to be upgraded from earth to an all-weather one by the Kenya National Highways Authority.
However, conservationists are up in arms over the project.
The road will connect Nyeri and Nyandarua counties. The 54 km road is set to cost Sh4.4 billion and is expected 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 made as a bid to hinder the development of the local communities and business owners but with the aim of conserving the environment for the benefit not only of the local community members 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.”
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 other water towers are Mt Elgon, Mau, Cherangany Hills and Mt Kenya.
They provide approximately 75 per cent of Kenya’s water resources..
Tourism CS Najib Balala and Kenya Wildlife Service director general John Waweru said they were not aware of the project.
The road will 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 on elephant survey in the Aberdare ecosystem by Wildlife Conservation Society, Rhino Ark, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and Kenya Forest Service estimated the elephant population in the Aberdare ecosystem at 3,568.
Medium to a high concentration of elephants was in the moorland in 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.
All indications, however, show that the events were being pushed from the highest level.