The battle for control of the millions of shillings collected at Karura Forest came to a head on Friday when tens of casual labourers and community officials confronted Kenya Forest Service (KFS) officers regarding the agency’s sudden takeover of the forest.
At the centre of the dispute is the estimated Sh20 million collected monthly by Friends of Karura Forest (FKF). This revenue amounts to approximately Sh245 million annually from gate charges, events, and concessions. Currently, the funds are channelled to a joint account co-managed by FKF and KFS.
According to the Karura Forest Management Plan (2021–2041), these revenues are earmarked to fund conservation efforts, maintain access for surrounding communities, restore degraded areas of the forest, and generate employment opportunities for residents of informal settlements bordering Karura.
For nearly two hours, traffic on Limuru Road was paralysed as workers confronted KFS wardens, accusing the state of ousting the community association that has co-managed Karura for more than two decades.
Stranded workers at the Karura Forest, Limuru Road entrance, on August 29, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
The chaos erupted barely a day after KFS announced that, effective August 29, all payments for access to the forest would be made exclusively through the government’s e-Citizen platform, in line with a National Treasury directive to centralise collections.
However, FKF, the community group credited with transforming the once-dangerous and depleted forest into a model of urban conservation, rejected the move. They warned that stripping them of control over revenues would dismantle the legally binding joint management plan and deny the community its rightful stake.
In a statement released Thursday, KFS defended the move to centralise payments, saying it was part of a wider government directive to streamline revenue collection through eCitizen.
“This transition is in compliance with the National Treasury’s instructions to phase out non-designated payment systems,” KFS said.
“Funds collected will support the sustainability of forest conservation efforts across the country.”
But FKF, through its Chairperson Prof Karanja Njoroge, swiftly hit back, dismissing the justification as both unlawful and a betrayal of the public trust.
“This is not about efficiency, it is about control,” the group said in its own statement.
“Karura’s joint management plan is a legally binding agreement, not a suggestion. For KFS to unilaterally kick out the community is to trample on the law and on the very people who saved this forest when it was a den of crime and land grabs.”
The group further warned that the takeover could destabilise the livelihoods of hundreds of casual workers who rely on Karura’s community-run model.
“If eCitizen takes over payments, the community will be starved of resources,” the statement read.
“That means no salaries for the workers who secure the forest, no maintenance of trails, no reinvestment into conservation. This forest will slide back to what it was before; unsafe, neglected, and vulnerable to grabbers.”
With the new payment system, FKF argues that they will lose their control over the forest yet they are the ones who have carried out its restoration.
“With the new payment system, we will lose control over the forest, yet we are the ones who carried out its restoration,” FKF said.
“Before the Community Forest Association became co-managers, Karura was essentially a no-go zone. Visitors risked violent robbery and even murder, and it was not unheard of for bodies to be dumped in the forest. In one horrific incident, 18 bodies were recovered.”
Karura Forest, covering 1,041 hectares (2,570 acres), is divided by Limuru and Kiambu roads, with the main block spanning 710 hectares and the Sigiria side stretching across 250 hectares.
“Since the enactment of the Forest Conservation and Management Act, Friends of Karura Community Forest Association have managed to not only restore and conserve the forest, but also to secure the forest and it remains as the only accessible, clean, well-managed forest within a Capital City globally,” the community organisation said.
Due to the replacement of exotic species with Indigenous ones, the forest is now home to some 260 species of bird as well as suni, Harveys Duiker, bushbucks, bush pigs, genets, civets, honey badgers, bush babies, porcupines, Syke’s monkeys, bush squirrels, hares, fruit bats, and various reptiles and butterflies.
