Grabbers pour cold water on efforts to upgrade City Park to international class

Citypark recreational area. ON 17/09/14 PHOTO: JENIPHER WACHIE

Nairobi; Kenya: Nairobi County stands to lose Sh2.6 billion meant to refurbish Nairobi City Park if wrangles between stakeholders and land grabbers do not end soon.

The 91-hectare park, which was founded in 1932, has over the years shrank to a quarter of its initial size due to grabbing. This state of affairs has put on hold a project by Aga Khan Trust for Culture aimed at raising the park to international standards.

John Mburu, the CEO of the Nairobi City Park Service Company, which is under the Trust for Culture, says the company is ready to start work as soon as the grabbed land is restored.

Out of the 91 hectares, 28 hectares have been developed and stakeholders were hoping there were at least 60 hectares remaining.

“When we did our assessment, hoping to find about 60 hectares to work on, we were surprised to find that there are only 19 hectares remaining,” says Mburu.

A visit to the park shows that even the portion that has not been tampered with is inaccessible, putting the refurbishment in further jeopardy especially if the ‘owners’ decided to develop the parcels already taken.

But the National Lands Commission (NLC) chair Dr Mohammed Swazuri says that a stakeholders’ forum that had been set up to review the ownership of the park is almost completing its work. He says the forum sits every two weeks and should be giving its findings in less than a month’s time.

The stalemate was exposed after the signing of the deal between the Government of Kenya and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in 2012; the agreement was signed by the Trust’s Prince Hussain Aga Khan, the then Nairobi Town Clerk Philip Kisia, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government Prof Karega Mutahi and Dr Jacob Ole Miaron who was then the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture. This was after a Cabinet decision to have the park preserved and restored as a cultural site.

Some of the objectives of the deal were to make the park environmentally friendly and accessible to all.

Titles dished out

“It was to be modelled on a similar park done by the Trust in Cairo,” says Mburu, adding that the Nairobi City Park Service Company was formed to manage the park and plough any benefits accrued after the refurbishment into its maintenance.

Part of the agreement was for the Government to revoke titles that had been issued illegally. Most of these titles are suspected to have been dished out in 1992 and 1997, which coincidentally were election years.

The park was initially demarcated by Murang’a, Forest, Parklands and Limuru roads but this is not the case anymore. Developments have come up along the roads, leaving only parts of the park accessible to the tarmack.

Mburu says that the ultimate goal is not to bring down some of the developments that have come up on park land because partnerships could be formed to develop the park.

“We are not trying to get back the initial 28 hectares that were given out, but the remaining 60 or so hectares that is under threat. We hope that those who have already developed parts of it will partner with us in the preservation of the park,” says Mburu.

The biggest problem lies in the current developments in the park, including illegal structures that have been constructed for rent. This has eaten into the area of the park that was earmarked for restoration.  There is also a hotel and other accompanying structures.

Grey areas

According to Mburu, the more the refurbishment process delays, the more illegal structures come up, which further complicates attempts to reclaim the park.

Plans submitted to the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) are yet to be approved according to Mburu.

Ecoplan, the company that conducted environmental impact assessment, says that the delay in the approval has been caused by Nema, which wants the whole process to be subjected to a public hearing.

A source from Ecoplan stated, “We cannot go for a public hearing when there are still grey areas, and we have agreed with Nema that until the Government gives us its commitment to the project, we will not have the hearing.”

This quagmire has delayed even the construction of the perimeter wall, which Mburu says would have deterred potential grabbers.

The wanton fragmentation of parts of the park saw the NLC move in to reclaim 14 parcels of land, which had been issued fraudulently.

According to Abdulkadir Adan of NLC, the commission has written to the Chief Lands Registrar to cancel nine titles issued fraudulently. Five parcels have yet to be given titles.

Adan says there are also other issues that have been raised and must be resolved before the refurbishment starts. One of them is the representation of Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Government in the management of the park. Another issue is whether visitors will be charged to access the park.

Those with valid titles for parts of the park will also have to be listened to fairly.

There is also reported infighting among powerful individuals in the city who have acquired land within the park. City Hall says that these individuals are pulling strings and ensuring that they block every attempt to have the park refurbished. Swazuri, however, says a conclusion was reached that all fraudulent titles would be cancelled.