Nelson Havi Protests Felling of Mature Trees on State House Road

Nelson Havi, a former Law Society of Kenya president and 2027 Westlands parliamentary aspirant, publicly protested the removal of mature trees along Nairobi’s State House Road, raising concerns about a possible road expansion and its environmental impact.

Images obtained on Sunday, October 11 showed the thoroughfare littered with tangled branches and debris, rendering it impassable to vehicles; the trees appear to have been deliberately cut using power saws, with some men also using machetes.

Havi posted a video on X that purportedly shows the felled trees, though the location and date could not be independently verified, and questioned the justification for removing 50-year-old ornamental trees to dual the road, noting that lower State House Road carries the least traffic.

He accused the government of prioritising road projects over mature trees, referenced the national tree-growing programme that aims to plant 15 billion trees by 2032, and described the projects as an elaborate scheme to plunder public money, without providing supporting evidence.

Havi also cited Deputy President Kithure Kindiki’s warning to a road contractor over delayed work and argued that some road constructions requiring extensive tree removal are unnecessary.

The incident sparked public outrage, with one netizen warning that cutting trees contradicts climate-change mitigation efforts and another suggesting that old trees could become hazards during anticipated El Niño rains.

Local groups, including the Kilimani Community Foundation, which staged protests against the proposed expansion in June, argued that widening the road could attract more traffic rather than ease congestion.

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja previously warned government agencies, contractors and private developers against illegal tree cutting, stating that any felling requires a written permit from the county Environment Director and that offenders must plant multiple replacements; his warning also extended to state agencies KeNHA, KURA and Kenya Power.

President William Ruto, speaking at Mazingira Day in Endebess, Trans Nzoia County, thanked Kenyans for participating in the tree-planting exercise, reaffirmed the target of 5.3 million trees for the day and the broader goal of 15 billion trees by 2032, and launched a ten-year conservation plan for Mount Elgon.

The controversy underscores the tension between urban road development plans and Kenya’s environmental commitments.