When news started filtering out that a Sh2.97 billion dual carriageway aimed at easing traffic congestion would be built in
What they did not know, however, was that the country’s fourth argest town would pay a heavy price following the demolition of houses and felling of trees along the highway.
Although victims of house demolitions were compensated, the Nakuru Municipal Council is up in arms over the felling of some 2,000 jacaranda trees.
The boulevard of mature trees that formed a beautiful canopy along a seven kilometre stretch of the main Nakuru-Nairobi highway used to signal one’s arrival in the town on the floor of the
Near the State House
Some of the trees, especially those near the State House, were planted during the colonial era while others were planted by the council in the early 1970s.
The decision to cut them down was arrived at after contractors said it would be more cost-effective to remove the trees to pave way for the expansion of the highway instead of moving underground water pipes and sewerage lines if the trees were to be spared.
Former Mayor Kimunya Kamana, who joined the council on July 14, 1959 as a rent collector, told the Saturday Nation the trees were mature when he arrived in Nakuru at the beginning of that year.
Mr Kamana, however, said he supported the decision to fell the tress saying they had become a nuisance to motorists. Some had their branches bending towards the road making it difficult for big trucks to use the road.
“Even when I was the mayor we used to receive complaints from vehicle owners. The drivers and especially those handling heavy commercial vehicles complained that the branches were obstructing them,” he said.
Mr Kamana said the felling of the trees would give the council an opportunity to re-plan and do landscaping on the dual carriageway once it’s completed.
Another former mayor, Dr Issac Kirubi, condemned the cutting down of the trees. He said the area around Milimani Estate, where State House is located, was already covered with trees in the late 1950s.
Dr Kirubi said he was among council officials who supervised the planting of more trees from Section 58 Estate towards Lanet area in the 1970s when President Jomo Kenyatta joined in the exercise.
Additional trees were planted towards Soil area on the road to western
The cutting down of the trees has resulted in a bitter row between officials of the China Road and Bridge Corporation (Kenya), who have been awarded the tender to build the road, and the council.
The row led to the arrest of three Chinese nationals working for the company who were locked up at the Central Police station for some hours.
The officials, who were arrested on the instructions of the council’s Director for Environment, Mr Simon Kiarie, for defying orders not to cut down the trees, were later set free on the orders of the Nakuru District Commissioner, Mr Wilson Wanyanga.
Council officials, led by Mayor Samuel Mithamo, were caught by surprise as they were not aware that the government through the Ministry of Public Works had given approval for the felling of the trees.
The over 40-year-old trees gave the town a unique identity and residents could not in the past few days visualise their absence.
The dual carriageway is being built from Lanet to the Nakuru-Njoro turn-off. The road is expected to reduce congestion in
The council argues there should have been consultations on the project since the local authority has a stake in the planning of the town.
Mayor Mithamo was so bitter with the cutting of the trees that he turned personal with one of the contractors, Mr Bruce Lee, accusing him of being arrogant and insensitive to environmental concerns of Nakuru residents.
“I have been to
He asked why the trees had to be cut down yet there was a resolution that the underground water pipes linking the town be moved to pave way for the road’s expansion.
“The contractors may have found it expensive to move the water pipes and instead decided to destroy our trees,” said Mr Mithamo.
But Mr Lee said the ministry of Public Works had bought the land on which the proposed road was being built.
The stormy encounter ended after the two parties resolved to suspend further cutting of the trees to allow consultations.
The mayor said he was shocked to learn that more trees had been cleared on Sunday despite the earlier agreement. He refused to attend a consultative meeting called by the Rift Valley provincial roads engineer.
The felling of the trees comes barely three months after residents who had acquired plots and constructed buildings in Lanet area were ordered to demolish them as they were said to have encroached on land meant for the construction of the dual carriageway.
The residents took the matter to the High Court but lost the case.
Others who have condemned the felling of trees are members of the Nakuru Municipal Council’s LASDAP Monitoring and Evaluation Committee.
Ordered to demolish
The LASDAP (Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plan) members led by chairman Simon Sangale ole Nasieku, vice-chairman the Rev George Mwangi, organising secretary Peter Muhia and Kings Maina claim the contractor had decided to cut down the trees to avoid compensating the Nakuru Water and Sewerage Services Company some Sh50 million to move its water pipes.
Among the 700 trees felled, the team said, was one planted by former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta in 1960s, leaving the commemorative plaque ‘‘irrelevant and unwanted’’.
A former councillor, Mr Issa Gichangi, claimed the contractors had opted to fell the trees to cut down on construction costs.
Former Nakuru town clerk Ernest Muibu said the contractor should be forced to replant other trees on completion of the road.
A resident, Mr John Kamundia, 65, remembers clearly when he took part in planting the jacaranda trees adding that President Kenyatta was on his way to
The Reverend Samuel Muriguh, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa secretary general, was shocked when he found the trees had been cut.
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