Uhuru Kenyatta spent the better part of his day, on June 5, with Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, Nairobi Metropolitan Service Director-General Mohammed Badi at the Arboretum where they struck a deal to work together.
According to a statement from State Hous Badi and Sonko met to mark The World Environment Day.
Commending on the conservation projects being undertaken in Nairobi, the president urged Governor Sonko to work very closely with the Nairobi Metropolitan Service team to ensure quick turnaround of the interventions instituted.
The two Nairobi city leaders were locked in a battle to control resources, with the governor stating that he had been forced to forfeit county functions to the national government.
“I was not given sufficient time to even read the draft. I was just told it is a good thing on service delivery to the Great people of Nairobi [sic] as I deal with my court cases,” Sonko opened up.
He had blocked the allocation of Ksh15 billion to NMS, forcing Kenyatta to make allocations from the office of the president.
During the event at Nairobi Arboretum, President Kenyatta promised to expand the number and size of conservancies, arboreta, parks and wildlife reserves so as to ensure the country’s botanical and zoological diversity is maintained.
“We are also reclaiming our Ngong Forest and we are going to start the process of fencing it and ensuring that it is also available not only for the present but for future generations.
“We have done in the last one month another 2,000 acres for Nairobi National Park and this is what we want to continue doing including restoration of various green areas among them rehabilitation of City Park,” the President stated.
He urged Kenyans to emulate the late Professor Wangari Maathai’s passion and achievements in the conservation of the environment.
He underscored the key role forests play as a reservoir of biodiversity, adding that Kenya is on course to achieving the 10 per cent national tree cover target.
As parts of the government’s conservation agenda, President Kenyatta assured that all major infrastructure projects including the Standard Gauge Railway are being implemented in a manner that ensures that biodiversity is not tampered with.
