Student protests against forest allocations continues

University students engaged the police in running battles today in the streets of Nairobi in protest over the allocation of land to developers in Karura forest, Kenya’s largest indigenous forest. “There is use of a lot of force on both sides. The students are badly beaten, there is extensive damage of property, several roads are blocked and many students are being arrested,” an eyewitness who called IRIN said. Claims that the police were using live ammunition was denied by police spokesman, Kingori Mwangi. He told IRIN the police had “other means of quelling riots”.

The student protests against the “irregular” land allocations began on Saturday when they attempted to break into Karura forest to plant tree-seedlings. They were beaten back by riot police. Thirty students, eight civilians and two policemen were injured in the violence. The students have given the government up to Tuesday to declare its stand on the five-month-old controversy. “We will issue a report to the cabinet and hope the situation will be arrested. But, I would like to say that all the allocations were regular and were done according to the law,” Ministry of Natural Resources spokeswoman, Mary Banda told IRIN today. The Anglican Church of Kenya on Sunday said it would join in the protest to save the forest. “Karura is public land, we must protect it,” Archbishop David Gitari said.