• The 117-square-kilometer park was founded in 1946.
•It has been facing challenges such as habitat loss and fragmentation in the dispersal areas
The Nairobi National Park’s wildlife ecosystem has increased in size to 78,000 acres after 49,000 more acres were added to its previous 29,000.
This is after the International Livestock Research Institute(ILRI) and Swara Plains Conservancy declared 32,000 and 15,000 acres of land respectively for wildlife conservation in Machakos County.
The government has also added 2,000 acres of land from Sheep and Goat Ranch to Nairobi National Park whose title will be under the Kenya Wildlife Service.
This will provide a wildlife corridor to inter-connect Nairobi National Park, Swara and ILRI conservancies.
Wildlife CS Najib Balala, on Thursday handed over registration certificates to the two conservancies at a ceremony held at the Swara Plains Wildlife Conservancy in Machakos County.
“I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the two conservancies on behalf of the government and the people of Kenya for this wonderful gift that will ensure our unique biodiversity thrives for posterity," he said.
"This will be an essential wildlife corridor, for the animal population in Nairobi National Park."
Balala said the Nairobi National Park is not big enough to meet the ecological requirements of its wildlife populations throughout the year.
“On the Northern side, we are looking into acquiring 1,500 acres of land to extend the Nairobi National Park to Ngong Forest. We hope that all this will enable Nairobi National Park to be listed and declared a world heritage site,”he said.
The 117-square-kilometer park was founded in 1946.
It has been facing challenges such as habitat loss and fragmentation in the dispersal areas; decline in wildlife population; poaching, human-wildlife conflict; alien and invasive species; pollution; mining and quarries; climate change; low park visitation; increased urbanisation; settlement threats on the sheep and goats ranch; and infrastructure development.
Balala also officially inaugurated the task force on wildlife corridor connectivity between Nairobi National Park and the Athi-Kapiti Plains.
“Their work is crucial and I expect that this task force will in the next three months clearly indicate where we will create a corridor to enable wildlife to migrate freely from Nairobi National Park to Swara-Kapiti plains,”Balala said.
This comes even as a report tabled at the National Assembly by the CS showed that National projects such as roads, rail, and other infrastructural developments have eaten over 7,809 acres of the protected areas.
The detailed report tabled September 7 by Balala shows that other projects are proposed to traverse through protected areas.
These include Telkom Kenya’s Lion 2 submarine cable set to affect Mombasa Marine National Reserve, the Mombasa –Nairobi Express Way set to affect Tsavo West and Ihithe-Aberdare Forest-Kahuruko-Ndunyu-Njeru Road set to affect Aberdare ecosystem.
This comes even as the Kenya Wildlife Service is battling to get Sh3 billion for allowing mega projects through protected areas.
As per the agreement for Phase 1 of SGR through Tsavo, the service was to receive Sh1,475,000,000.
Of the amount, Sh1,469,000,000 has been paid, leaving a balance of Sh6,000,000.
The funding was to take care of the restoration of environment and compensation of movement of structures.
About eight per cent of the Kenya’s land mass is protected area for wildlife conservation.
Protected areas are gazetted landscapes/seascapes that have been surveyed, demarcated and gazetted either as National Parks and/or National Reserves.
In Kenya, Protected areas embrace various types of ecosystems namely: forests, wetlands, savannah, marine, arid and semi-arid.
Protected areas in the country comprise of 23 terrestrial National Parks, 28 terrestrial National Reserves, four marine National Parks, six marine National Reserves and four national sanctuaries.
The report said the Standard Gauge Railway 11 k Extension from Nairobi National Park Cheetah Gate to KAPA Oil Refinery affected 115 acres of the Nairobi National Park.
It said SGR phase 2A through the Nairobi National Park affected 102 acres.
The Inland Container Depot through the Nairobi National Park by Kenya Railways affected 38 acres while the South Eastern Bypass road by Kenya National Highways Authority affected 53 acres.
The Kenya Pipeline Company has also proposed for an upgrade of its Western Pipeline extension project(line 4).
The project whose acreage is yet to be specified will affect Nairobi National
Park, Lake Nakuru National Park and Tsavo West National Park.
The report in our possession showed that the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company’s 400 kv Mombasa Nairobi transmission line affected 247 acres of Tsavo West National
Park and 61 acres of the Nairobi National Park.
Another 400 kv line belonging to KETRACO running from Olkaria-Lessos-Kisumu affected 88 acres of Hell’s Gate National Park.
A 220 kv underground cable belonging to Kenya power from Embakasi substation to Bunyala Road substation and traversing through the Nairobi National Park Nairobi National Park affected one acre.
The re-routing of Nairobi National Park 66 kv Ngong hills station belonging to Kenya Power to Karen station and Kajiado through the Nairobi National Park affected almost three acres.
The geothermal generation activities by Kenya Electricity Generation Company has affected 4,385 acres of Hell’s Gate National Park.
A geothermal energy exploration drilling project by Africa Geothermal International Project (Kenya) limited has affected 32 acres of Mt. Longonot National Park.
Kengen’s geothermal power extraction and generation has also affected another 2,630 acres at the Hell’s Gate National Park.
KETRACO’s Olkaria-Narok 132 kv line and Olkaria-Suswa 220 kv lines have affected 18 acres of Hell’s Gate National Park.
A company called ORPOWER has also proposed to have 148 acres of Hell’s Gate National Park to put up power plant site.
The report showed that three acres have also been affected by geothermal resource extension at Hell’s gate National Park.
Interestingly, the report did not specify how many acres were affected by Kenya Railways first phase of Standard Gauge Railways that affected Tsavo East National Park,Tsavo West National Park, Tsavo road and rail National Reserve, Kiboko Wildlife Sanctuary and the Nairobi National Park.