This is not the first time Kenyans have had to save Karura Forest, and that is exactly the problem. The government has backed off its plan to establish National Youth Service barracks inside the protected urban forest, following three weeks of community resistance, legal pressure, and public outcry that echoes battles stretching back to the 1990s, when Wangari Maathai bled for these trees. Greenpeace Africa welcomes the decision. But a retreat is not a resolution, and we will not mistake one for the other.

On 21 February, chainsaw operators entered Karura. Trees fell. Heavy machinery moved in. Structures went up. All of it happened inside a protected forest, without consultation with Friends of Karura Forest, without an Environmental Impact Assessment, and without a single agenda item at the Joint Management Committee meeting held just days before. This was not an administrative error. It was a governance failure: deliberate, documented, and part of a pattern.

A road was tarmacked inside Karura overnight. No consultation. Community co-managers went to court. The government backed down. Life moved on. Now trees have been cut and land has been cleared, and once again public pressure has forced a reversal that should never have been necessary. Kenyans should not have to save the same forest twice.

The government cannot simply walk away from this damage. Greenpeace Africa is calling for:

  • A full, independent audit of the trees felled and land cleared. KFS claimed no trees were felled, only old stumps removed. Friends of Karura documented over an acre of cleared tree and shrub cover. Someone is not telling the truth. Kenyans deserve to know which version is on the record.
  • A binding restoration plan for the affected area. The Karura Participatory Forest Management Plan already commits to removing the Rangers Village from inside the forest and returning that land to indigenous cover. Honor it. Now. Not eventually.
  • Accountability for the governance failure. Friends of Karura holds a legal co-management mandate. They were not informed. They were not consulted. This was not an oversight. It was a pattern, and without consequences, it will repeat.
  • A guarantee that what was stopped at Karura will not simply continue elsewhere. KFS has confirmed NYS barracks are being built in gazetted forests across the country, including at Ngong Hills. What the government halted under public scrutiny must not quietly proceed under silence somewhere else.

Kenya tells the world it is planting 15 billion trees. It cannot build that credibility with speeches while dismantling it in the forest at night. Climate leadership is not a summit declaration. It is the daily, unglamorous, legally-bound work of protecting what already exists, and ensuring that the communities who did that protecting are never again bypassed by the very institutions mandated to stand alongside them.

Today’s retreat is welcome. The real test begins now.

Greenpeace Africa calls on the Environment CS and KFS Chief Conservator of Forests to issue a full public statement on Karura, including a timeline for site restoration, a commitment to upholding the Joint Management Framework, and a guarantee that Environmental Impact Assessments and community consultation will precede any similar projects in gazetted forests across Kenya.

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For media inquiries:

Sherie Gakii, Communications and Storytelling Manager, Greenpeace Africa, [email protected]  |  +254702776749