Nairobi, Sept. 17 — Governor Johnson Sakaja has issued a stern warning to government agencies and private contractors after mature trees were felled along State House Road, saying he was left shaken by the scale of the destruction.
Speaking on Wednesday, the governor said he “almost collapsed” when he saw what remained of a stretch of road that had for years been shaded by decades-old trees, cut down overnight without what he says was proper county authorisation.
He singled out Kenya Power and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) for particular criticism, accusing agencies carrying out road expansion and infrastructure works of treating mature trees as expendable obstacles rather than assets that take generations to replace.
“A tree takes decades, decades to grow, and then you cut it in one night,” Sakaja said, adding that any tree removal within the city now requires clear justification and sign-off from the county government.
The governor’s frustration comes as Nairobi grapples with a string of environmental pressures, including a daily water deficit reportedly running into hundreds of millions of litres and recurring flooding blamed partly on poor urban planning and the loss of green cover. City Hall has in recent months pushed a tree-planting drive intended to replace lost canopy, but officials acknowledge that newly planted seedlings cannot make up for decades of growth lost in a single clearing operation.
Sakaja is expected to convene a meeting with heads of the implicated agencies this week to agree on a joint protocol for vegetation clearance ahead of any future road or utility works within the city. He also called on private developers to retain green spaces within their projects rather than clearing land entirely before construction begins, framing tree cover as critical infrastructure rather than a cosmetic afterthought.
For residents along State House Road, the felling has become a visible flashpoint in a broader debate over how Nairobi balances rapid infrastructure expansion with efforts to protect its shrinking urban forest. Environmentalists have long warned that the capital’s tree cover has fallen well below recommended levels, worsening heat, flooding and air quality across the city.
Whether the coming meeting produces a binding agreement between the county and national agencies, or simply another set of promises, is likely to determine how much bite the governor’s warning ultimately carries.