Upgrade Aberdare’s road a potential ecological disaster

Located in the central highlands of Kenya the Aberdare Forest is towered by lash almond brown trees whose bark gives off a soft radiance on account of pouring sunlight streaks.

As you plunge deeper into the forest, your nose will be engulfed with layers of forest scents, such as the musky smell of fallen leaves or the waft of a tree trump that is already creating life.

If you are both keen and lucky, you may spot a mountain bongo trotting or an elephant ambling .

In all its divines, the Aberdare ecosystem (Aberdare Forest Reserve and Aberdare National Park ) faces an imminent danger to its natural state if a proposed road project by Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to upgrade a dirt road passing through the forest into a murram road is implemented.

“The proposed upgrading of the road from a national park murram road accessible to park visitors only to a tarmac road open to all traffic will have a long-term significant environmental impact on the Aberdare ecosystem and their diverse and unique wildlife,” says Christian Lambrechts, CEO Rhino Ark Charitable Trust, a conservation organisation running various conservation programmes around Aberdare and other regions.

The road is set to connect the counties of Nyeri and Nyandarua. The main section starts at Ihithe, takes a south-westerly course through the Nyayo Tea Zone enters the Aberdare National Park, and eventually ends at Ndunyu Njeru in Nyandarua.

Its proponents say it will enhance economic activities, including the transportation of fresh produce, including tea and vegetables.

Ecological crisis

However, conservationists, such as Rhino Ark and others oppose the road terming it an ecological crisis to the Aberdare forest, a water catchment area for the Sasumua and Ndakaini dams, which provide most of the water for Nairobi County.

Additionally, the elephants hosted by the ecosystem, which number at least 3,568 are set to be impacted if the proposed road bisects the vast moorland area.

The moorlands are a vast spellbinding habitat critical for the ecosystem as they serve as water sources for Rivers Athi and Ewaso Nyiro, they also prevent rainwater from running downstream.

Christian adds that the traffic usage of the proposed upgraded road will lead to frequent collisions with wildlife, impacting threatened and endemic species, such as mountain bongos. “This is a critically endangered species with no more than 80 individuals remaining in the wild globally. The largest group, comprising 40 to 50 individuals, resides in the Aberdare National Park precisely where the upgrading of the road will take place,” he says.

The irony

The irony of the project lies in that the president pledged to plant 15 billion trees over the next decade as part of efforts to reduce persistent drought cycles yet the road will tear through 25 kilometres of closed canopy. “All of us must work together, so that we protect our environment by planting trees preserving our wetlands making sure that all water towers are protected, and fenced off so that we have the assurance of better climatic conditions, regular rains, and enough water, President William Ruto said while leading the country in a nationwide tree planting exercise last month,” Christian says.

The Mau-Mau road project is a Sh30 billion three-year project that was supposed to end this year, but stalled due to a cash crunch and denial of approval permits by key state agencies.

The project envisions constructing over 500 kilometres of road along the eastern edge of the Aberdare National Park and Aberdare Forest Reserve, with several spur and feeder roads connecting various towns, according to a report from KeNHA.

The first route will take a road user three hours 17 minutes to drive through and the second option three hours 46 minutes. The proposed road is the most viable option since the road user will drive through the section for one hour 30 minutes saving them money and time,” KeNHA says in its Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report

However, Rhino Ark counters the argument in a protest document saying “The road across the forest reserve and the national park is characterised by steep vertical gradients reaching 13.56 per cent, exceeding the maximum gradient (11 per cent) stipulated in the road design manual,” it says.

It continues, “On such steep vertical gradients across the forest reserve and the national park, the speed of the heavy goods trucks, semi-trailer trucks will be significantly less than the max design speed of 50 kilometres per hour (Kph), undermining any justification of the project based on reduced transit time.”

In 2009, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) put a brake on the project when it denied KeNHA permits. “The proposed road realignment will traverse 25 kilometres through closed canopy forest and will have massive impact on the natural forest during construction it is possible that some endenaged tree species may be affected,” reads part of a letter addressed to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Roads in 2009 by NEMA.

The Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forest Service who are custodians of the ecosystem have also stood behind NEMA to deny KeNHA environmental impact assessment approvals.

Memories of the past 

The renewed push for the road brings memories of the Standard Gauge Railway, which sliced through the Nairobi National Park.

In a report dubbed Assessing the Ecological Impacts of Transportation Infrastructure Development on SGR, the findings concluded that landscape modification by the SGR construction has resulted in increased soil erosion, land degradation, flooding, sedimentation of water bodies, habitat destruction, and impeding wildlife movements.

About 500.61 hactares (1,237 acres) of vegetation was lost or 4.26 per cent of the total park area during the construction and operation of the SGR a different study states.

The entire Aberdare Forest is fenced by a 400- metre electric fence that keeps wildlife off human territory and vice versa. The fence initiative was pioneered by Rhino Ark and commissioned in 2010 by then-president, the late President Mwai KIbaki. It protects over 2000 square kilometres of prime forest.

“Out of this intervention, we have been able to regulate the harvesting of red cedar, which was lucrative for the production of fencing posts. We are also observing the population of bongos in the salient part of the Aberdare growing,” said Adam Mwangi Fence and Community Manager Rhino Ark.

There are fears that the road will reverse the gains made by providing avenues for illegal exploitation of natural resources, including bushmeat, illegal wildlife trade, and logging.

A 2020 study conducted by the Universities  of Nairobi, Amsterdam, and Oxford assessing the socio-economic benefits of project alternatives affirms the position of many conservationists on the matter.

“There is almost no socio-economic benefit to building a road over the Aberdare range and through the Aberdare National Park. There is no evidence that it brings people closer to main roads, or reduces travel time to markets,” it reads.