For more than 20 years, families in Lang'ata have lived in homes that, on paper, still stand inside a gazetted forest. Now they want Parliament to redraw the map, and conservationists are fighting back.

More than 6,000 households and several government institutions in Lang'ata have asked Parliament to approve a variation of the Ngong Road Forest boundary. If approved, it would degazette 34 acres of the forest, The Standard reports. The request follows a resolution passed by more than 650 people at a two-day public participation forum held in October at St Michael's Catholic Church in Mugumo-ini ward.

Whose land is it?

The 34 acres include KMA Estate, Lang'ata Gardens, Lang'ata View, Shalom, Forest Edge View and St Mary's Hospital. The proposal also covers areas used by institutions including Bomas of Kenya, Lang'ata Women's Prison, the Police Dog Unit, KBC, Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and ICIPE.

Lang'ata Deputy County Commissioner Walter Katono said the nearby Sunvalley I, II and Royal Park estates were lawfully excised, but the remaining 34 acres were not. A 2020 National Assembly committee report on a residents' petition reached the same conclusion: it found the law on removing land from a forest had not been followed. The committee recommended using Section 34 of the Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016 to resolve the matter.

Seme MP James Nyikal, whose house sits on KMA Estate, said he and fellow young doctors set up a cooperative in 1981 and "innocently looked for a parcel of land to build our homes".

'We legalise it by another process'

Not everyone at the forum agreed. Ngong Road Forest Association chairman Simon Kage warned that the process could be used to legalise other encroachments. "Let us not set a precedent that when an illegality happens, we legalise it by another process," he said.

The Green Belt Movement, founded by Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, has gone further. In an October statement, it called the forum a "sham public participation exercise". It urged Parliament to reject the proposal, asked the EACC to investigate how the land was acquired, and asked the Kenya Forest Service to defend the existing boundary.

The group says the forest covered about 7,232 acres when it was gazetted in 1932 but is now down to about 3,020 acres because of excisions and development. It also warned of a separate proposal to excise part of the forest for a road linking Talanta Stadium to Bomas.

What happens next

An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report will go to the Principal Secretary for Forestry for review before being sent to Parliament. MPs will then decide whether these Lang'ata estates finally get secure titles, or whether a city forest that has already lost more than half its area gets smaller again.

Photos: The Standard (Ngong Road Forest, courtesy); Business Daily (Ngong Forest from Karen Road). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.