Looming danger for wildlife

The Nairobi National Park has an area of about 117 square kilometres. However, this is only the core area of an ecosystem consisting 2,000 square kilometres. The wider ecosystem spreads over 20,000 square kilometres and includes Nguruman, Amboseli and Tsavo national parks.

• The ever-expanding city now threatens to place the park that was previously in the outskirts right in the middle of the city.

• Conservationists are fighting to maintain the status quo but are fast losing out. The attempt to stop the construction of Kaputiei housing scheme by Jamii Bora Trust was derailed by the High Court, which gave the construction a go-ahead. Friends of Nairobi National Park claim the development is right in the middle of the animal dispersal area and, as a result, poses a threat to the protected rhino population at the national park.

• All parties, however, agree the development is outside the boundaries of the park. The bone of contention is the ability of the wildlife to move south out of the park to access the rest of the ecosystem.

Land in this corridor is mainly in the hands of private individuals following the subdivision of the Kitengela triangle in the 1980s and the subsequent settlement of people.