Kenya Clears Karura Forest Land for Tree Nursery Amid Public Outcry

On a stretch of land inside Karura Forest — Nairobi's 1,041-hectare urban oasis once defended by Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai against land grabbers who beat her bloody — workers recently felled indigenous trees and began installing prefabricated metal container barracks. The government says it is building a nursery to grow five million seedlings for the nation. Conservation groups say it is destroying a forest to save one.

The irony has not been lost on Kenyans.

What Is Happening in Karura Forest?

In late February 2026, reports began circulating that sections of Karura Forest were being cleared without explanation. Friends of Karura Forest (FKF), the community organization that has co-managed the forest with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) since 2009, raised the alarm after spotting freshly cut indigenous tree stumps near the forest rangers' quarters [1].

By early March, the scale of the operation became clearer. Environment Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa confirmed that approximately three acres of forest land had been cleared for two purposes: establishing a tree nursery capable of propagating five million seedlings, and constructing temporary accommodation for National Youth Service (NYS) personnel who would tend the seedlings [2][3].

The ongoing works include the installation of prefabricated barracks made from shipping containers to house NYS workers who will assist in raising seedlings not only at Karura but at forest stations nationwide [3]. KFS insisted that "no trees have been felled, only removal of old tree stumps" — a claim directly contradicted by photographs and testimony from FKF and the Green Belt Movement [4].

According to information relayed by the Green Belt Movement after engaging KFS leadership, the development was described as involving "temporary structures" — but ones expected to remain in place until 2032 [5]. That six-year timeline has deepened skepticism about whether the project is truly temporary.

The Constitutional Question

Public participation is not a suggestion in Kenya — it is a constitutional requirement and a legal obligation under the Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016. Yet no public participation process preceded the commencement of these works [5]. The legally recognized Community Forest Association, Friends of Karura Forest, was reportedly neither informed nor consulted before indigenous trees were felled [1][5].

KFS fired back, warning FKF against "attempts to derail a government tree-growing project" [6]. The agency framed opposition as obstructionism against a nationally important environmental initiative.

But legal experts and environmental advocates argue the government cannot bypass its own laws in the name of conservation. Greenpeace Africa expressed solidarity with FKF and the Green Belt Movement, calling for transparency and proper legal process [5]. The organization pointedly asked: "Who is making decisions about Karura Forest — and why in silence?"

A Forest With Battle Scars

To understand why the clearing of three acres has triggered such an intense reaction, one must understand Karura Forest's place in Kenya's national consciousness.

In 1998, when politically connected developers began clearing sections of the forest to build luxury homes, the Green Belt Movement's Wangari Maathai mobilized resistance. On January 8, 1999, security guards violently attacked a group of women, including Maathai, who were planting trees in protest near the forest. Several were hospitalized. Maathai was treated at Nairobi Hospital [7][8].

The campaign succeeded. President Daniel arap Moi banned the allocation of public forest land in August 1999. Developers were removed. Over the following years, FKF transformed Karura from what Maathai described as "a dumping site for hijackers and murderers and illegal private developers" into a beloved urban sanctuary — fenced, secured, and restored through community effort and corporate partnerships [7].

Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, and Karura became perhaps the most prominent symbol of citizen-led conservation in East Africa. Her legacy makes any government intervention in the forest politically and emotionally charged.

A Pattern of Encroachment

The nursery project is not an isolated incident. Karura Forest has faced a series of threats in recent years, forming a pattern that conservation groups describe as death by a thousand cuts.

The Kiambu Road expansion: In late 2024, it emerged that KFS had licensed 51.64 acres of Karura Forest — an area equivalent to 28 football pitches — to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) for road widening, without obtaining mandatory environmental approvals or conducting public participation. In August 2025, the Environment and Land Court slashed the permitted area to just 0.1233 hectares, annulling two special user licenses issued by KFS [9][10].

The management takeover: In August 2025, KFS announced it would end the joint management agreement with FKF, taking sole control of the forest. The move sparked public outrage and was eventually reversed. But the underlying tensions remained, particularly over revenue — Karura generates between Sh225 million and Sh245 million annually from entry fees, parking, events, and concessions [11][12].

The eucalyptus logging: Under former Environment CS Aden Duale, the government authorized large-scale harvesting of blue gum (eucalyptus) trees within Karura, describing it as a plan to replace exotic species with indigenous trees. The harvesting was completed in the 2024/2025 financial year [13]. Critics argued the logging was driven by commercial timber interests rather than ecological restoration.

The eCitizen controversy: KFS shifted Karura's payment system to the government's eCitizen platform, raising entry fees by 74 percent from Sh100 to Sh174 per person, and centralizing revenue collection away from the joint FKF-KFS account [11].

Kenya's Disappearing Forests

Source: World Bank Open Data

Data as of Feb 24, 2026CSV

Kenya's forest crisis extends far beyond Karura. According to World Bank data, the country's forest area has declined steadily from nearly 7% of total land area in 2000 to approximately 6.2% in 2022 [14]. Kenya's constitution mandates a minimum of 10% forest cover — a target the country has never met.

The most recent Forest Status Report estimates Kenya's average annual deforestation rate at 84,716 hectares, with an additional 14,934 hectares suffering degradation annually. Approximately 12,000 hectares of forest land are converted to other uses every year [15]. Forest degradation costs Kenya's economy an estimated Sh534 billion annually — roughly 3% of GDP [16].

Since independence in 1963, Kenya's forest cover has dropped from an estimated 10% to around 6%, a loss driven by agricultural expansion, charcoal production, illegal logging, and urban development [15].

The 15-Billion-Tree Paradox

The Karura nursery project is explicitly tied to President William Ruto's signature environmental initiative: planting 15 billion trees by 2032 to increase Kenya's tree cover from approximately 12% to 30%. The campaign was launched in September 2022 and includes a designated National Tree Growing Day [17].

The ambition is enormous — and the progress has been underwhelming. By April 2025, Kenya had managed to plant approximately 783 million trees under the National Tree Growing Restoration Campaign, far short of the 1.5 billion-per-year pace required [18]. Data discrepancies have also raised credibility concerns: the official JazaMiti tracking app recorded 738 million trees planted, while the Presidency claimed 1.06 billion in early 2025 [18].

More critically, experts warn that planting numbers tell only part of the story. Survival rates for planted seedlings remain poorly tracked, and environmental analysts have cautioned that without monitoring whether seedlings actually grow to maturity, the campaign may be generating impressive statistics without meaningful forest restoration [18].

To address chronic seedling shortages, President Ruto directed KFS to work with the NYS to produce two billion seedlings — the program now cited as justification for the Karura clearing [17][3].

The Logging Ban That Wasn't

The contradiction at the heart of Kenya's conservation policy runs deeper than Karura. In July 2023, President Ruto lifted a six-year ban on logging in public forests that had been imposed by his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta. Speaking in the timber town of Nakuru, Ruto declared it was "foolish" to have mature trees rotting in forests while locals suffered from lack of timber income [19].

The decision drew sharp criticism from environmentalists, who argued it directly contradicted the 15-billion-tree campaign. Between September 2023 and March 2024 alone, Kenya lost trees equivalent to five Karura Forests, according to a Daily Nation investigation [20].

"You cannot credibly champion tree planting while simultaneously lifting protections that enabled the very deforestation you claim to be reversing," said Greenpeace Africa in a statement responding to KFS's characterization of forest threats as "fake news" [21].

Kenya's Forest Push Faces Enforcement Gaps and Policy Contradictions, environmental experts warned in a February 2026 assessment. Gains from tree planting could be undermined by weak enforcement against encroachers and conflicting national development priorities [22].

Who Controls Kenya's Forests?

The Karura dispute has surfaced a fundamental governance question: who should control Kenya's forests — centralized government agencies or community stakeholders working in partnership with the state?

The Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016 established a framework for community participation through Community Forest Associations (CFAs). FKF has been the recognized CFA for Karura, investing in security, maintenance, and ecological restoration that transformed the forest over more than a decade.

But the Ruto administration's approach — from the attempted management takeover to the unilateral clearing for the nursery project — suggests a shift toward centralized state control. KFS has framed community opposition as interference with national programs, while conservation groups argue the government is dismantling the very model that made Karura a success [12][23].

The African Arguments analysis described the situation as a test of whether Kenya's community-based conservation model can survive political pressure. "The partnership that saved Karura Forest is now under threat from the very institution designed to protect it," the report noted [23].

What Comes Next

As of early March 2026, the nursery construction continues inside Karura Forest. FKF and the Green Belt Movement have called for an immediate halt pending proper consultation, while Greenpeace Africa has urged full compliance with constitutional requirements for public participation [5][6].

The legal pathway remains open. The August 2025 court ruling on the Kiambu Road expansion established clear precedent that KFS cannot unilaterally authorize use of forest land without environmental approvals and public engagement [9]. Whether conservation groups will pursue similar legal action against the nursery project remains to be seen.

For the millions of Nairobi residents who walk, run, and cycle through Karura's trails, the stakes are both environmental and deeply personal. This is the forest Wangari Maathai bled to protect — and the question of whether you can cut down a forest in order to save one is not merely rhetorical. It strikes at the credibility of Kenya's entire reforestation agenda and the principles of participatory governance enshrined in the country's constitution.