SAVING NAIROBI'S LUNGS - HOW BRAVE KENYANS FOUGHT HARD TO SAVE KARURA FOREST

The COVID pandemic demonstrated just how important lungs are to to the functioning of the whole body. The late Prof Wangari Maathai described Karura Forest as one of Nairobi's lungs, and no truer words have ever been uttered. The forest is a small, pristine enclave of natural peace in a bustling city of concrete, pollution, noise and scurrying hurry. Every day, every weekend, Nairobians love to go there to unwind by taking long walks under the canopy of trees, breathing fresh air, listening to the singing birds. Others play a game of Badminton, or of soccer. School children receive nature lessons in this forest. This is where some children born in the hard concrete jungle experience the feel of unpaved trails underneath their tiny feet for the first time. And the forest works hard every minute to clean Nairobi's air - all without fanfare. What is not always clear to most people is that their prized forest, which is surrounded by some of Nairobi's most exclusive estates, including Muthaiga, Gigiri, Runda, Nyali, Kitsuru, and Garden Estate, was saved by a group of spirited fighters led by Prof Wangari Maathai, after huge chunks of it were illegally allocated to government cronies. The attempts to grab the forest go against an existing tribal curse and official gazettement. The fight to save the forest in the 1990s was bloody, with people losing their limbs, and Prof Maathai receiving a blow to her head that could have finished her off if it had been aimed properly. With available land dwindling and property prices in Nairobi skyrocketing, the threat to Karura forest is always there. This is the story of that passionate fight that saved Nairobi's lung; a fight with strong ties to Mau Mau, to the pro-democracy movement of the 1990s, and to freedom. #maumau #karuraforest #kenya #environment #forests #trees #nairobi