• Reports indicate that the fencing near the Magadi road has already started.
• Conservationists have been up in arms over the plans to fence off the park. They say fencing will be the end of it.
Image: FILE
A plan to fence the Nairobi National Park, effectively turning it into a zoo, is as good as done.
A source familiar with the happenings confided to the Star that the project has been endorsed by the authorities.
"Apparently the fencing has already been approved but how can this be so without an Environmental Impact Assessment being carried out? How is that possible?" the source said.
Reports indicate that the fencing near the Magadi road has already started.
But Nema deputy director of enforcement Salome Machua told the Star that there has been no EIA study.
"We believe fencing will change the park to a zoo," she said.
An environmental impact assessment is a critical examination of the effects of a project on the environment.
It identifies both negative and positive impacts of any development activity or project, how it affects people, their property and the environment.
The EIA also identifies measures to mitigate the negative impacts, while maximising on the positive ones.
If a proper EIA is carried out, then the safety of the environment can be properly managed at all stages of a project- planning, design, construction, operation, monitoring and evaluation as well as decommissioning.
Conservationists have been up in arms over the plans to fence off the park. They say fencing will be the end of it.
The source said the park helps keep the grass short, which the animals like. However, grass has overgrown in some areas.
The bushiness and long grass are said to be keeping the animal density currently very low within the park.
"The burning used to be under the control and as a ‘project’ of the students of the School for Field Studies – which is next to where I live. I am sure they would be happy to continue the exercise," the source said.
During dry periods, the park is a major source of water for wildlife. If it is fenced, this migration will be stopped.
Authorities are doing the facelift based on the National Wildlife Strategy and Tourism blueprint 2030.
Under the plan, some 10 parks will get facelifts as premier destinations.
The major plan is to begin with Nairobi National Park with discussions being how to transform it.
Reports indicate also that some of the roads in some of the parks will be given a facelift.
Tourism Chief Administrative Secretary Joseph Boinnet recently denied claims that main roads within the park will be tarmacked.
Boinnet said the ministry has grand plans in place to improve all national parks and reserves that are managed by KWS and county governments.
He said the collaboration was aimed at improving attractiveness.
Already, an SGR line is cutting through the Nairobi National Park in what conservationists said will cause irreparable damage.
The park is the oldest national park in Kenya, gazetted in 1946 by the colonial government.