How State firms okayed Ngong forest land grab

Government agencies were yesterday scrambling to disown the faces behind a company that was on the verge of grabbing a section of the Ngong forest to construct a golf course and a restaurant.

Even as Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and the Kenya Forest Services (KFS) rushed to call press conferences to stop the planned land grab, questions linger over their respective agencies’ roles in facilitating the excision of forest land to a private entity whose owners remain faceless.

The role of the National Land Commission (NLC), the agency that oversees all public land including gazetted forests, was also brought into question given the rising cases of public land being excised.    

This is the second attempted encroachment in a row, following a recent petition by the Green Belt Movement seeking to block the excision of over 51 acres in Karura Forest allegedly to pave the way for the expansion of Kiambu Road.

Controversial circumstances

In this latest scandal, plans were at an advanced stage to construct a leisure facility named Karura Golf Range within Ngong Road forest, 29km southwest of the actual Karura forest before Duale revoked the licence.

The KFS and National Environment Management Authority (Nema) had already issued licences and permits to private developers under controversial circumstances, allowing the encroachment to go unperturbed.

In his statement on Tuesday, Duale ordered Nema Director General Mamo Boru and Chief Conservator of Forests Alex Lemarkoko to immediately revoke the licences and prepare a detailed report on the matter within 72 hours.

An inspection report released by Nema yesterday revealed the existence of a proposal for restaurant and golf range development under the name Karura Golf Range Limited. The project representative was identified as one Amos Ng’eno who is also listed as the Project Environmental Consultant.

According to Nema, the inspection was conducted following a complaint on alleged illegal encroachment of the forest for the construction of the restaurant and the golf range.

Samuel Lopokoiyit, who was the report compiler, said in the inspection report that the proposed site for the project is within the Miotoni Block of Ngong Forest which is under KFS but the project had not commenced.

“The site is fenced off, with controlled access via one gate off the Southern Bypass at the Lenana Interchange. The site is used as a recreational area for hiking, with cabro-paved parking for vehicles and sitting benches provided,” the report reads in part. The facility was to be put up adjacent to the parking area near the entrance.

Additionally, Lopokoiyit said that Kenya Pipeline Corporation’s (KPC) oil pipeline passes through a section of the forest block where the proposed golf range was to be put up on the wayleave.

No objection

The document shows that KPC had provided a letter of no objection to the establishment of a golf range on the pipeline wayleave.

KFS has been fencing Ngong Road forest and constructing a perimeter patrol road within the 1,224 hectares of forest after securing Sh160 million in funding from a local bank in April.

In the Karura forest case, the Green Belt Movement is in court to block the excision of 51.64 acres to pave the way for the construction of a dual carriageway along Kiambu Road. In the petition filed in the Environment and Lands Court, the movement accuses KFS of issuing two special licences to a private entity for the construction of a recreational facility on 2.076 acres of the forest and an ablution block respectively, without comprehensive environmental assessments.