Today, there is increasing anger and fury regarding the current breaches of a number of legal guidelines in relation to the building of the section of the Standard Gauge Railway from Nairobi city to Naivasha, that has made its way into the renowned Nairobi National Park without any assessment of the environmental as well as social effect in place not even holding any public proceeding (hearings) as demanded by law. This is among the commonly visited tourist sites for visitors who come for a Safari in Kenya.
The Chairperson of the Kenya Wildlife Service actually made it worse after he brought about a social media storm when he accused renowned journalists as well as other reporters on social media of not being well informed, being rumor mongers as well as sensationalist, and that resulted into one of the top conservationist to fire back at the Chairperson. This is a damaging example; we are exhibiting huge disrespect of the irrespective laws. Try asking around the globe and you will discover that so many people know about this national park.
So why risk Kenya’s good reputation in other countries; a country having the only National Park located near the capital city. There are a couple of alternative by-pass routes that were revealed, but one wonders: why is it that they have not even been put into serious consideration? This is an unmitigated Public relations catastrophe and it negatively reflects on Kenya more so on the chairman of KWS who is currently in the middle of the all this storm. Just as the plans for the Serengeti Highway were exposed a couple of years back, many wish that this upcoming plan is similarly exposed and revealed.
Without a doubt it looks like construction has unlawfully extended inside the park, placing the managers of the park together with NEMA on the spot
The reality is it was Dr. Richard Leakey the chairman of KWS who a year ago brought up the preposterous idea that the road through the Serengeti be constructed on a bridge and no wonder today he is in the limelight because the construction of the railway likewise seems to be applying as similar ‘bridge-concept’. Nevertheless this actually divides the national park into two separate sections since most of the ‘road’ won’t comprise of bridges thus successfully hindering the free movement of wildlife along the biggest section of what is referred to as the ‘illegal route’.
Similar sources also pointed at the Kenyan electricity transmission company for passing it high-voltage line through the park while showing fears that a number of other public-utility companies similarly may see a ‘cost-effective‘route running across the park with options of not having to pay compensation to the locals living in such areas or having to go for more pricey construction options.
Another concerned Kenyan revealed that it appears as if when you can put enough funds on the table you certainly can get-away with nearly anything within the park. Imagine if a property developer appears and places may be 25billion or 50billion or even 100billion on the table to construct a lavish estate strictly for billionaires? I believe you can see where this most likely leads to; that cash beats wildlife conservation.
Friends of Nairobi National Park (FoNNAP) together with several other wildlife conservation NGO’s along with different individuals are at the moment pondering on what to do next however all signs reveal that this matter will be directed to Kenyan courts to get a lasting injunction against further encroachment of the national park as step 1. Step 2 will be to try and obtain a court ruling to force Kenya Railways together with the Chinese contractors to get a route that passes around this park, most likely according to suggestions looked at and published recently.
This controversy having gone public in a high-profile way and with all media reporting getting momentum it’s nearly anybody’s guess presently how the government of Kenya will handle this, and what the ever more independent judicial system will say once filing of the cases takes place.
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