Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has come with its fair share of blessings in terms of communication and transport. The Mombasa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi line was completed in 2017. Phase two of the railway aimed to link Nairobi with Malaba on the Kenya–Uganda border cut through the pristine Olooula Forest -one of the remaining Nairobi green spaces. The Oloolua Community Forest Association tried to stop it, but as Christopher Muriithi says, development had to happen. In today’s episode, in collaboration with China Dialogue, we explore the environmental impacts developments such as the SGR has caused and when demonstrations fail, what legal options do communities have to safeguard their environment from destruction?
