New-look Jeevanjee gardens will be posh, Badi promises

The historic Jee-van-Jee gardens in Nairobi that are undergoing rehabilitation will be completed in June despite regular interference by city residents.

Not long ago, workers on the ground under Nairobi Metropolitan Services were forced to warn those stepping on the grass that they would be punished if found.

For ages, the garden in the heart of the city has been serving hundreds of workers who spend time at the garden during lunch breaks.

This has also been home to Bunge la Mawanainchi, a group that camps on the ground to discuss politics and other topical issues.

However, NMS has said stakeholder engagements were carried out before rehabilitation of the park began.

Their findings indicated that the project works would not be hampered by the high foot traffic available within the park.

“NMS and other stakeholders wanted to create a seamless interaction of the park with its users even at the construction stage as stakeholder engagements were still ongoing,” NMS said in a statement

Before, the garden was over the years dilapidated due to poor maintenance occasioned by lack of resources.

Some of the features that Badi has promised to put up at the garden include, new benches, drinking water points, children's play area, walkways and amphitheatre among others.

So far a section of it has been dug off and some grass planted but the hot weather conditions and those stepping have made some patches wilt.

For this reason, the workers have been forced to put warnings that anyone found stepping on grass will pay a Sh5,000 fine.