The government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura has refuted reports of land clearing inside Karura Forest.
He said the ongoing activities are part of renovations of the existing Tree Biotechnology Programme Trust (TBPT) Nursery.
“This exercise does not involve any new clearing but is instead a renovation of facilities on land that had already been set aside for the above-mentioned tree nursery, which has not been maintained for some time,” Mwaura said.
He said the three acres were to be used to plant two million seedlings in support of the 15 billion tree campaign and said the shortage of adequate tree seedlings has been one of the key challenges in fulfilling this initiative.
He further explained that the NYS officers and volunteers overseeing this exercise would be accommodated in containers within the area, which is already being used to accommodate Karura Forest rangers.
“No new land is being hived off for this exercise, and the public is therefore urged to disregard fake news and sensational reporting regarding this matter,” Mwaura said.
In an interview on NTV, Environment Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa said the clearing of the land in the forest was intended to boost seedling production in the tree-growing campaign.
“We need to mobilise and strategise all the forest stations to produce two million to 10 million seedlings, one of them being Karura Forest,” Barasa said.
The CS said the campaign would accelerate the restoration of ecosystems in the country, including drylands, wetlands and coastal areas.
Barasa further defended the accommodation of the officials in charge of the exercise at the forest, saying the exercise required human oversight.
“For us to achieve two to 10 million seedlings, we need human resource capacity to do that. These are temporary homes. The land being cleared at Karura Forest is to put up the temporary homes together with the nursery,” she added.
