Friends of Karura Forest has demanded an immediate stop to ongoing tree clearing near the Rangers Village inside Karura Forest, raising alarm over what it says are undisclosed plans to put up accommodation for National Youth Service teams within the protected area.
In a statement dated February 26, 2026, the association accused Kenya Forest Service of undertaking the works without notice or engagement, despite the forest being under a joint management framework between the two bodies.
The group said indigenous trees have been felled since the weekend by people using chainsaws, with heavy machines later deployed to remove stumps close to the Rangers Village where forest officers live.
“As co-managers of Karura, we demand an immediate end to this work. Any proposals for development or building work inside the forest on this land must be brought out in the open for discussion,” said Prof. Njoroge Karanja of the FKF Board.
The association stated that the latest clearance mirrors past actions it considers unilateral, pointing to the overnight paving of a road leading to the Rangers Village last year. That project, it said, was carried out without its knowledge and is now the subject of a court case filed by the group.
FKF further disclosed that during a recent Joint Management Committee meeting attended by KFS officials, no information was shared about the clearing or any construction plans for the site. It added that a letter sent to KFS on Tuesday seeking clarification has not received a response.
Although KFS has reportedly maintained that the affected land lies within its headquarters compound, FKF disputes this position, saying the site is about one kilometre away from the headquarters and located well inside the forest.
According to the association, the cleared section is meant to host barrack-style housing for NYS teams tasked with supervising an expanded tree nursery.
FKF argues that the KFS headquarters, which sits along Kiambu Road and covers 55 hectares, already has enough space and infrastructure to accommodate such facilities without moving deeper into forest land.
The current Karura Forest Management Plan, as well as the two previous plans, provide for the relocation of the Rangers Village to the KFS headquarters to allow the existing site to revert to indigenous forest cover.
“It is 15 years today since Karura was officially opened and it has been an extraordinary achievement to jointly protect and conserve the forest. All this progress is now under threat from this proposal for barracks for a large number of people which will cause huge disruption inside the forest,” Karanja said.
Friends of Karura Forest describes itself as the country’s leading Community Forest Association operating under the Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016.
The law allows such associations to enter into agreements with the state to jointly manage forests and share responsibility for protecting and conserving these public resources.
