The Friends of Karura Forest are calling for an immediate halt to the clearance of trees in and around the Rangers Village inside the Forest and an immediate public explanation about proposals for National Youth Service accommodation in the area.

Since the weekend numerous indigenous trees have been cut down by a group with chainsaws while the stumps have been uprooted by a heavy machinery by the Rangers Village where forest rangers live. The group were allowed to enter the forest by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) Station Manager while another group carried out a site assessment.

Although Friends of Karura Forest (FKF) jointly manages the Forest with Kenya Forest Service, it received no warning about the tree clearance or plans for the area despite a recent meeting of representatives from both organizations at a Joint Management Committee. A letter sent by the Friends to Kenya Forest Service on Tuesday remains unanswered.

The developments follow the secret overnight tarmacking of a road inside the forest leading to the Rangers Village last year again without any consultation and Friends of Karura has brought a court case opposing it.

KFS has claimed on social media that the area being cleared is inside its Headquarters – however it is approximately a kilometre from their HQ right inside the forest. It appears the area will host barrack style accommodation for National Youth Service teams overseeing an expanded tree nursery. The KFS Headquarters area, bordering Kiambu Road, spans 55 hectares and has plenty of space for such accommodation with existing roads and infrastructure.

The current Karura Forest Management Plan (and previous two plans) includes moving the Rangers Village to the KFS HQ. The land should be returned to indigenous forest.

“As co-managers of Karura, we demand an immediate end to this work. Any proposals for development or building work inside the forest on this land must be brought out in the open for discussion,” said Prof Njoroge Karanja of the FKF Board.

“It is 15 years today since Karura was officially opened and it has been an extraordinary achievement to jointly protected and conserve the forest. All this  progress is now under threat from this proposal for barracks for a large number of people which will cause huge disruption inside the forest.”

Friends of Karura is the country’s leading Community Forest Association (CFA) operating under the Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016 which established CFAs as legal entities that can enter joint management agreements with the state and share management roles.

For more information and interviews contact Professor Karanja Njoroge – former Chair and FKF Board member – Tel +(254) 729030301 or email – njokaranja@gmail.com