Nema has given the go-ahead for the construction of phase two of the standard gauge railway through the Nairobi National Park, despite resistance from the public and environmentalists.
The license was issued on December 13, five days after the end of public hearings on the proposed project.
Nkamuno Patita, a representative of the Maasai community living adjacent to the park, said, “This confirms our fears that a decision had already been made through the boardroom and not through public participation.”
“It is impractical that after we submitted strong views against the project and gave detailed accounts on how the project is environmentally unsound on December 8, a license was issued days later.”
Dr John Musingi said the ESIA study used to issue the license was poorly done and failed to tackle the issues of risk. He is an environmentalists in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi.
“The consultant who did the ESIA did it in justification of what the government proposes, whereas it was meant to be an independent study,” Musingi said.
“Nema has issued the license to toe the government line, not to play its regulatory role. This action is the beginning of assault on the conservation areas, especially to NNP. There will be irreparable damage.”
Musingi said the railway will cause habitat fragmentation, resulting in inbreeding and imbalance in the ecosystems, which will lead to wildlife deaths.
Emuhaya MP Wilbur Ottichilo, an environmentalist who sits on the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, said the decision does not surprise him. He warned that it spells doom for the park.
“Nema presides over professionally unsound EIA reports that follow a template that complies with the rich and the government. The custodians of our environment has leaders who are more interested in money and not a legacy of having stood up as champions of conservation,” Ottichillo said.
He said it is a dereliction of duty for Nema to be part of those destroying the environment, and a betrayal to the Kenyans who pay them to ensure a clean and safe environment.
“We have called for its disbandment, but nothing has been done because we have an absentee minister. But we hope this year we might get a new government that takes environment as a first priority,” the MP said.