Chinese-Built Expressway Speeds Up Erosion of Kenya's "Green City"

Rubble, bare earth and tree stumps mark the route of a super highway under construction in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, upsetting many.   Rows of indigenous trees that once lined the route of the new four-lane 16-mile Nairobi Expressway have been felled as construction nears completion.  Scores of ornamental palm trees planted after independence from British colonial rule in the 1960's have not been spared either.

A century-old fig tree targeted for removal was saved by the president after a public outcry - but campaigners' voices about the hundreds of others have been drowned out.  The devastation has already seen flocks of marabou storks and other birds that perched and nested on the trees migrate to tall buildings in the city center.

The Chinese-financed highway, some of which is elevated, will link the main airport in the east to western suburbs. It is intended to make it easier to cross the city and free other roads from Nairobi's notorious traffic jams.  Before the $550m project started last year, an official environmental impact report said that more than 4,000 young and mature trees would be cut down. It also flagged its "major negative impact" on air and water quality during construction.

In response, government officials said the Chinese contractor building it would plant trees elsewhere - five for every one felled. But those trees will not be in Nairobi - and environmentalists fear such promises may not even be kept.  Elizabeth Wathuti, of the Green Generation Initiative and Wangari Maathai Foundation, said: "The developers say: 'It's OK. We'll just plant new trees somewhere else.' But this is not OK and we know in our hearts that this is not OK. Every tree in the city counts and every tree in the city must live."

This distrust has been fueled after it came out that a section of the highway was to encroach into the city center's iconic Uhuru Park.  Nairobi's famed green space was saved in the 1990s by environmentalists, led by the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, thwarting the then-ruling party's plan to build its huge HQ and shopping complex there.

Nairobi straddles forests to the west and savanna grasslands to the east, with three rivers running through it.  It is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun", but its green spaces are being eaten up everywhere by commercial and infrastructural developments - it is not just the Nairobi Expressway to blame.

To the north and east, huge bypasses are being built that are spewing out red dust and rocks in already congested neighborhoods. To the south, a high-speed railway has been built through a national park, which activists say poses a threat to wildlife.Trees lining roads in the suburbs have also been cut down to create space for giant billboards.

Without warning, Nairobi's Uhuru Park and Central Park were recently closed for three months - officially to be spruced up.This has sparked consternation as photos have since emerged of building work going on there.

But the odds are stacked against conservationists. In July, prominent environmental activist Joannah Stutchbury was shot dead near her home in Nairobi. The 67-year-old had been getting death threats for campaigning against the destruction of Kiambu Forest by developers eyeing the prime site on the outskirts of the city.

Critics say the government is barrelling ahead with the Nairobi Expressway because President Uhuru Kenyatta wants it finished before he leaves office - it is seen as his legacy project. There are widespread doubts about whether the highway will really ease congestion in the city as motorists will have to pay a toll to use it.  It is seen as a "road for the rich" in a city where most people use minibuses to travel around.

Wathuti says the government should rather keep the health of the city in mind when considering their legacy. She says green spaces are the lungs of a city - areas that are also important for the mental health of its residents.  "I'm grieving because by cutting down trees to create more space for roads, we are undermining the children's and young people's sense of agency and meaning."