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File Image shows a signage at the Karura Forest entrance. Photo/ Courtesy
Karura Forest bestows on Nairobi City a feather in its cap that only the Nairobi National Park equals. A capital city of only one of a handful cities with a fully-fledged indigenous forest within.
The City of Nairobi is only one of five capital cities in the world with expansive green spaces or a forest cover. Other capital comparable cities worldwide include Oslo, Norway, the City-State of Singapore Paris in France and Cape Town in South Africa.
Karura Forest in Nairobi is no stranger to crisis; the most recent being that the governmentโs unilateral and high handedness in usurping all revenue collections from the forest.
Friends of Karura vs KFS
The forest enjoyed a smooth joint management balanced between the community-based organization Friends of Karura Forest (FKF) and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). Now, there is a collision between the KFS and Friends of Karura Forest over the management and collection of forest entry fees.
The FKF is accusing KFS of a "forceful takeover." The FKF has expressed strong concerns that the KFS has undermined the successful joint government and community-led conservation model.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) has also thrown its weight behind the community group in condemning what it terms as the โforceful takeoverโ of Karura Forest by the KFS. It said the move is a violation of the law and a threat to decades of successful community-led conservation.
The latest spark of controversy involved a communique from the Chief Conservator of Forests, Mr. Alex Lemarkoko, at the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). He instructed KFS wardens at Karura Forest to direct all payments starting August 30, 2025 to be paid exclusively through e-Citizen at a higher charge Ksh.178 instead of the usual Ksh.100. Lemarkoko, through various media interviews, says this is a government directive to digitize all state agency payments.
Karura before independence
Before the colonial era, Karura Forest was a completely indigenous forest, a natural woodland used by local communities for firewood, medicine, and cultural purposes.
During the colonial era, in the year 1932 the British colonial government gazette Karura Forest as a Forest Reserve to serve as a fuel source for the Uganda Railway project and also to act as a green buffer for the expanding city. It is the British government that first introduced Eucalyptus trees into the forest.
Karura Forest, to the advantage of the Kenya independence movement, had caves that provided a safe shelter for the โMau-Mauโ fighters during the fight for โuhuruโ (independence).
Post-Independence fight for conservation
The period after Kenyaโs first presidentโs death, particularly in the late 80โs brought on tough times for Karura Forest as the Moi administration degazetted huge swathes of the forest land allegedly for private housing and other miscellaneous developments.
Daniel Moi, an authoritarian ruler, clashed head on with the environmental activists who put the environment first, almost ahead of their own lives.
Into the 90โs, a cabal of environmental activists took the country by storm as they dared Moi over environmental issues. They refused to be silenced as the Moi administration turned against the environment and went on a spree of land-grabbing.
In 1998, Prof Wangari Maathai caught the attention of both the national and international media and leaders when she led a campaign against fraudulent allocation of Karura Forest to private developers in Nairobi by the Kanu regime.
Prof. Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement (Kenya) and later a Nobel Laureate due to her fruitful and fearless environmental activism, led charged public protests which culminated in women protestors from the Karura Forest surrounding community planting indigenous trees in the same forest, thereby pushing back the attempts by the government to illegally grab sections of the forest.
The Moi administration, not used to the spirited opposition, subjected the activists to untold violence and arrests.
However, by then, the message had reached the world, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the atrocities meted on environmental activists yet they stood for a better country.
This forced Moi to back down not only with his plans at Karura Forest but also at Uhuru Park in the Central Business District where he had planned to commission a sixty-storey building christened the โTimes Tower.โ
On August 16, 1999, Moi announced that he was banning, with immediate effect, all allocation of public land and soon all construction in the forest ceased.
Transformation and new management
In 2009, Karura Forest was officially opened to the public for recreational use, with co-management by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the Friends of Karura Forest (FKF).
The new management at the forest rehabilitated vast sections of it where uncontrolled logging had taken place as well as replenished the areas that hitherto had been cleared in readiness for occupation.
Walking trails and natural biking lanes were created to enable visitors to enjoy its flora and fauna. The forest has remained a popular destination for nature trails, picnics, and cycling, although some illegal developments on its fringes continues, notes the Kenya Land Alliance.
Land grabbing and tree felling
In 2015, the Kenya Forest Service sounded the alarm that more than 1,000 acres had been hived off Karura forest afresh and appealed to the Uhuru Kenyatta administration to help in returning the same.
The KFS said that in less than four years after the death of environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai, land-grabbers were back and were pursuing even the sections the Nobel Laureate had helped repossess from the Moi government allocations.
Recently, the Ruto Administration has been on the spotlight since Aden Duale, then Cabinet Secretary for Environment tried explaining away rampant logging of blue gum trees within the forest.
Duale clarified that logging in Karura was part of a plan to replace exotic species like eucalyptus with indigenous trees, not deforestation. He said the logging had to do with the governmentโs policy of sustainable forest management, highlighting the governmentโs goal to plant 15 billion trees and restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded forests by 2032.
However, conservationists remain wary, citing past attempts to allocate Karuraโs land to developers between 1994 and 1998, which were thwarted by Maathai and community activists.
A fresh fight for the soul of Karura
Measuring slightly over 1000 hectares, Karura Forest, is the capital cityโs largest public green space. Since 2009, the FKF has partnered with the KFS in the management of the urban forest under the Karura Forest Management Plan (2021-2041) as envisaged under the Kenya Forest Conservation Management Act of 2005.
The Act champions the shared responsibility between the community groups around forests with Government agencies on forest management. The Karura Forest Management partnership states that all revenues collected from its activities be deposited into a joint account to cater for recurrent expenditures, forest development activities and new mutually agreed projects.
As an entity, the FKF says they invested over Ksh.37 million towards the construction of an electric perimeter fence all around the forest, without the governmentโs input, which significantly bolstered security. Together with their allies, the Green Belt Movement (GBM), FKF have continued to ensure the integrity of the forests biodiversity and as well as further encroachment such as the 51.64 acres they protected from excision for the Kiambu Road expansion in a recent legal victory on August 14, 2025.
Karura friends in court
The FKF have said they have recourse to the courts to ensure the KFS restores the 20-year joint administration agreement of the Karura Forest as has been over the past 15 years.
On August 29, 2025, members of FKF demonstrated outside the main entrance of the Karura Forest, Kiambu Road, to voice their displeasure publicly.
Their plight and the general public outcry has caught the attention of the media, the international community, and the civil society among others. The FKF say the forest is home to over numerous antelopes, bird species, monkeys, and reptiles, which can only be sustained with the input of the host surrounding community.
FKF is heading to the courts but what awaits the status of Karura Forest is uncertain.
Just like in the days of Prof. Maathai, the fight for the soul of Karura Forest needs the old and new breeds of environmental soldiers who will not back down until sanity, responsibility and sustainability of our eco-system is assured. The outcome of this conflict might have extensive implications for how not only Karura Forest will be managed but all other forests within the country.
The former Chief Justice David Maraga has weighed in on the conflict and castigated the lack of public participation by the government in usurping the control of all Karura Forest revenues as a violation of Article 10 of Kenyaโs Constitution, which emphasizes transparency and accountability.
Maraga spoke about concerted efforts to corruptly take over the countryโs natural resources and the veracity of the e-Citizen platform, in light of the Auditor Generalโs reports.
Karura Forest stands as testimony of Kenyans resilience, a reminder to the battles Kenyans have fought for decades and won.
The vigilance Kenyans should exercise over the environment is because environmental justice is joined at the hip to sustainable development, democracy, and human rights, and dignity. It a reminder to the vigilance Kenyans must have to ensure their hard won victories are not swept aside under new administrations.
Karura forest is one Nairobi Cityโs assurance to sufficient clean air, a green space to behold uncorrupted environment, a space where the children will walk in awe of nature and those looking to exercise find true nature trails. Karura Forest might be the lungs of Nairobi Cityโฆ the trees that assures the city of clean air every day.
ยฉCitizen Digital, Kenya
Continue reading...
- Friends of Karura are accusing KFS of a "forceful takeover."
- FKF is heading to the courts but what awaits the status of Karura Forest is uncertain.
File Image shows a signage at the Karura Forest entrance. Photo/ Courtesy
Karura Forest bestows on Nairobi City a feather in its cap that only the Nairobi National Park equals. A capital city of only one of a handful cities with a fully-fledged indigenous forest within.
The City of Nairobi is only one of five capital cities in the world with expansive green spaces or a forest cover. Other capital comparable cities worldwide include Oslo, Norway, the City-State of Singapore Paris in France and Cape Town in South Africa.
Karura Forest in Nairobi is no stranger to crisis; the most recent being that the governmentโs unilateral and high handedness in usurping all revenue collections from the forest.
Friends of Karura vs KFS
The forest enjoyed a smooth joint management balanced between the community-based organization Friends of Karura Forest (FKF) and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). Now, there is a collision between the KFS and Friends of Karura Forest over the management and collection of forest entry fees.
The FKF is accusing KFS of a "forceful takeover." The FKF has expressed strong concerns that the KFS has undermined the successful joint government and community-led conservation model.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) has also thrown its weight behind the community group in condemning what it terms as the โforceful takeoverโ of Karura Forest by the KFS. It said the move is a violation of the law and a threat to decades of successful community-led conservation.
The latest spark of controversy involved a communique from the Chief Conservator of Forests, Mr. Alex Lemarkoko, at the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). He instructed KFS wardens at Karura Forest to direct all payments starting August 30, 2025 to be paid exclusively through e-Citizen at a higher charge Ksh.178 instead of the usual Ksh.100. Lemarkoko, through various media interviews, says this is a government directive to digitize all state agency payments.
Karura before independence
Before the colonial era, Karura Forest was a completely indigenous forest, a natural woodland used by local communities for firewood, medicine, and cultural purposes.
During the colonial era, in the year 1932 the British colonial government gazette Karura Forest as a Forest Reserve to serve as a fuel source for the Uganda Railway project and also to act as a green buffer for the expanding city. It is the British government that first introduced Eucalyptus trees into the forest.
Karura Forest, to the advantage of the Kenya independence movement, had caves that provided a safe shelter for the โMau-Mauโ fighters during the fight for โuhuruโ (independence).
Post-Independence fight for conservation
The period after Kenyaโs first presidentโs death, particularly in the late 80โs brought on tough times for Karura Forest as the Moi administration degazetted huge swathes of the forest land allegedly for private housing and other miscellaneous developments.
Daniel Moi, an authoritarian ruler, clashed head on with the environmental activists who put the environment first, almost ahead of their own lives.
Into the 90โs, a cabal of environmental activists took the country by storm as they dared Moi over environmental issues. They refused to be silenced as the Moi administration turned against the environment and went on a spree of land-grabbing.
In 1998, Prof Wangari Maathai caught the attention of both the national and international media and leaders when she led a campaign against fraudulent allocation of Karura Forest to private developers in Nairobi by the Kanu regime.
Prof. Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement (Kenya) and later a Nobel Laureate due to her fruitful and fearless environmental activism, led charged public protests which culminated in women protestors from the Karura Forest surrounding community planting indigenous trees in the same forest, thereby pushing back the attempts by the government to illegally grab sections of the forest.
The Moi administration, not used to the spirited opposition, subjected the activists to untold violence and arrests.
However, by then, the message had reached the world, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the atrocities meted on environmental activists yet they stood for a better country.
This forced Moi to back down not only with his plans at Karura Forest but also at Uhuru Park in the Central Business District where he had planned to commission a sixty-storey building christened the โTimes Tower.โ
On August 16, 1999, Moi announced that he was banning, with immediate effect, all allocation of public land and soon all construction in the forest ceased.
Transformation and new management
In 2009, Karura Forest was officially opened to the public for recreational use, with co-management by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the Friends of Karura Forest (FKF).
The new management at the forest rehabilitated vast sections of it where uncontrolled logging had taken place as well as replenished the areas that hitherto had been cleared in readiness for occupation.
Walking trails and natural biking lanes were created to enable visitors to enjoy its flora and fauna. The forest has remained a popular destination for nature trails, picnics, and cycling, although some illegal developments on its fringes continues, notes the Kenya Land Alliance.
Land grabbing and tree felling
In 2015, the Kenya Forest Service sounded the alarm that more than 1,000 acres had been hived off Karura forest afresh and appealed to the Uhuru Kenyatta administration to help in returning the same.
The KFS said that in less than four years after the death of environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai, land-grabbers were back and were pursuing even the sections the Nobel Laureate had helped repossess from the Moi government allocations.
Recently, the Ruto Administration has been on the spotlight since Aden Duale, then Cabinet Secretary for Environment tried explaining away rampant logging of blue gum trees within the forest.
Duale clarified that logging in Karura was part of a plan to replace exotic species like eucalyptus with indigenous trees, not deforestation. He said the logging had to do with the governmentโs policy of sustainable forest management, highlighting the governmentโs goal to plant 15 billion trees and restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded forests by 2032.
However, conservationists remain wary, citing past attempts to allocate Karuraโs land to developers between 1994 and 1998, which were thwarted by Maathai and community activists.
A fresh fight for the soul of Karura
Measuring slightly over 1000 hectares, Karura Forest, is the capital cityโs largest public green space. Since 2009, the FKF has partnered with the KFS in the management of the urban forest under the Karura Forest Management Plan (2021-2041) as envisaged under the Kenya Forest Conservation Management Act of 2005.
The Act champions the shared responsibility between the community groups around forests with Government agencies on forest management. The Karura Forest Management partnership states that all revenues collected from its activities be deposited into a joint account to cater for recurrent expenditures, forest development activities and new mutually agreed projects.
As an entity, the FKF says they invested over Ksh.37 million towards the construction of an electric perimeter fence all around the forest, without the governmentโs input, which significantly bolstered security. Together with their allies, the Green Belt Movement (GBM), FKF have continued to ensure the integrity of the forests biodiversity and as well as further encroachment such as the 51.64 acres they protected from excision for the Kiambu Road expansion in a recent legal victory on August 14, 2025.
Karura friends in court
The FKF have said they have recourse to the courts to ensure the KFS restores the 20-year joint administration agreement of the Karura Forest as has been over the past 15 years.
On August 29, 2025, members of FKF demonstrated outside the main entrance of the Karura Forest, Kiambu Road, to voice their displeasure publicly.
Their plight and the general public outcry has caught the attention of the media, the international community, and the civil society among others. The FKF say the forest is home to over numerous antelopes, bird species, monkeys, and reptiles, which can only be sustained with the input of the host surrounding community.
FKF is heading to the courts but what awaits the status of Karura Forest is uncertain.
Just like in the days of Prof. Maathai, the fight for the soul of Karura Forest needs the old and new breeds of environmental soldiers who will not back down until sanity, responsibility and sustainability of our eco-system is assured. The outcome of this conflict might have extensive implications for how not only Karura Forest will be managed but all other forests within the country.
The former Chief Justice David Maraga has weighed in on the conflict and castigated the lack of public participation by the government in usurping the control of all Karura Forest revenues as a violation of Article 10 of Kenyaโs Constitution, which emphasizes transparency and accountability.
Maraga spoke about concerted efforts to corruptly take over the countryโs natural resources and the veracity of the e-Citizen platform, in light of the Auditor Generalโs reports.
Karura Forest stands as testimony of Kenyans resilience, a reminder to the battles Kenyans have fought for decades and won.
The vigilance Kenyans should exercise over the environment is because environmental justice is joined at the hip to sustainable development, democracy, and human rights, and dignity. It a reminder to the vigilance Kenyans must have to ensure their hard won victories are not swept aside under new administrations.
Karura forest is one Nairobi Cityโs assurance to sufficient clean air, a green space to behold uncorrupted environment, a space where the children will walk in awe of nature and those looking to exercise find true nature trails. Karura Forest might be the lungs of Nairobi Cityโฆ the trees that assures the city of clean air every day.
ยฉCitizen Digital, Kenya
Continue reading...
