•Uhuru Park before renovations was also a hot spot for political rallies.
•Uhuru and central parks have been under renovation under the KDF through defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) since September 2021 in an effort to bring them up to international park standards.
Image: TEDDY MULEI
Final touches are underway as the military prepares to hand over Uhuru and Central parks to the Nairobi county government.
Defence CS Aden Duale on Monday evening said that the Kenya Defence Forces were finalising on a few renovations.
"This evening, I held a consultative meeting with the Nairobi City County representatives led by Governor Johnson Sakaja," he said.
"We discussed a number of issues pertaining to Uhuru Park and Central Park that were recently renovated and facelifted by the Kenya Defence Forces," Duale added.
In July a similar meeting was held between Defence Principal Secretary Patrick Mariru and Sakaja still on the two parks.
Uhuru and central parks have been under renovation under the KDF through defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) since September 2021 in an effort to bring them up to international park standards.
The renovated 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.
The parks have not yet been opened to the public.
It was only opened during the Nairobi festival last year in December.
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 to the Narc coalition party that kicked out Kanu from power after it unveiled Mwai Kibaki who won the presidential election.
Going down memory lane, in 1989, the late 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.