Maraga referred to the Kenya Wildlife Service plan to hive off 76 acres of the Nairobi National Park as part of a Ksh.41.9 billion Bomas of Kenya expansion project and the relocation of a 62-year-old animal orphanage.
“We should be doing everything possible to reduce the effects of arid areas, but we are doing the opposite. We are not even thinking about climate change,” he said.
“When it suits us, we talk about climate change, we talk about planting 15 billion trees. You go to Karura forest, cut down the forest in the name of having seedlings. It is interesting,” the former Chief Justice remarked during an interview on SpiceFM.
According to Maraga, public interest should not come at the expense of national heritage, warning that the 90-year-old Nairobi National Park should not be surrendered lightly.
In his statement, Maraga blamed the KWS for omitting the residents of Nairobi in the public participation process, allowing only select non-governmental organizations to participate, leading to the approval of the acquisition.
Maraga argued that KWS was relocating the animal orphanage to build a car park with the capacity to hold 1300 cars for the Bomas International Conference Centre.
Further, Maraga maintained that development must not undermine environmental conservation and called for strict adherence to constitutional processes.
He expressed concern over what he described as the growing tendency to treat constitutional provisions as optional, particularly on matters requiring public participation.
“Quite a number of people want to reduce the constitution to a suggestion. The constitution is a command, and unless we regard it as so, we are going to go into anarchy,” he said.
The presidential aspirant further faulted the government for how it conducts public participation exercises.
“What is happening now, where public participation is required, is some tokenish kind of process that is given and is called public participation,” he said.
The former Chief Justice was among 9 people arrested on Monday while protesting plans to hive off 76 acres of the Nairobi National Park for construction and the relocation of the Nairobi animal orphanage.
