NAIROBI, Kenya — Mature trees along State House Road in Nairobi have been cut down, leaving the route strewn with branches and timber and prompting a fresh wave of public anger over how the city treats its green spaces.
Images circulating on Sunday, 11 October, show tangled branches and debris across the road, forcing pedestrians, including families, to pick their way through the wreckage on foot. The footage appears to show the trees were cut deliberately with power saws rather than brought down by weather, with some men also seen cutting the timber with machetes.
Reports link the felling to a proposed expansion of the road into a dual carriageway. Vivid Voice News, which carried the same reports, said it could not independently verify that connection, and neither could this outlet. No statement from the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) addressing the weekend’s felling was available in the coverage reviewed for this report.
The felling drew immediate criticism from Nelson Havi, a former president of the Law Society of Kenya and a 2027 Westlands parliamentary aspirant. In a video posted on X, he noted that the lower part of State House Road carries some of the lightest traffic in the area and asked what could justify cutting down “50-year-old ornamental trees” to widen it.
He also complained of the “wanton destruction of trees” for road projects he said were unnecessary, and pointed out that the cutting came a day after Mazingira Day, Kenya’s national environment day.
Online, reaction was divided. Some users said that, with climate change worsening, trees should be protected from water towers to the city centre. Others argued that very old trees can be a hazard to motorists and pedestrians, particularly with heavier rains forecast.
The Kenya Meteorological Service has projected a wetter-than-average October to December season, although no official has cited weather risk as the reason for the felling.
The expansion plan has been contested for most of the year. At a public participation meeting on 6 February, residents raised concerns that, according to later reports, were not addressed. By June, the Kilimani Community Foundation (KCF), an umbrella body for residents, had formally opposed the proposed Sh1.6 billion project.
It argued that widening the road would attract more traffic rather than ease congestion, since many motorists using the route are simply passing through Kilimani. Preliminary plans reported at the time described dualling the road between the Processional Way junction and the Dennis Pritt intersection.
The Green Belt Movement said dozens of mature trees along the road, some more than 60 years old, had been marked with a red “X” for removal. The KCF wrote to the KURA Director General, Silas Kinoti, urging the agency to reconsider and to map and protect the existing tree canopy. Residents also staged protests in June.
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Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has repeatedly criticised tree clearing on the route. In late July he warned government agencies, contractors and private developers that felling trees requires county permission, and said the county had written to road agencies and would meet them to reinforce compliance.
In September, he singled out KURA and Kenya Power over what had been done on State House Road, saying he “almost collapsed” when he saw it. He acknowledged the road was being expanded but said “too much” damage could be avoided, and noted that replanting seedlings cannot immediately make up for trees that took decades to grow.
It was not clear from available reports whether the county had issued a permit for the latest felling, who had ordered or carried out the work, or whether construction on the dual carriageway had formally begun.
The weekend’s images look set to keep the dispute alive. Residents’ groups want the project reconsidered and a full tree inventory.
The county government says its approval is required for any felling, and the road agency has yet to respond publicly to the latest cutting. Whether the expansion goes ahead, and how many of the road’s remaining trees survive, may depend on how those positions are reconciled.
