Sakaja says he 'almost collapsed' when trees were cut down on State House Road

• Sakaja said the county would also require developers to maintain trees and green spaces.

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja chairs a Cabinet meeting on July 22, 2026. PHOTO | COURTESY

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has warned agencies, contractors and developers against cutting trees without approval, saying the county will enforce regulations aimed at protecting the green spaces.

Sakaja said no one is legally allowed to cut trees without permission from the county government and proper justification, such as where a tree poses a safety risk or interferes with infrastructure.

“No one is allowed according to the law to cut trees without permission from the county government and proper justification,” Sakaja said in a podcast episode on Wednesday.

Sakaja criticized agencies like Kenya Power and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) for the damage they have caused on Statehouse Road, noting that replacing trees does not immediately compensate for the years required for new trees to grow.

“We’ve seen many agencies and I’ll call them out Kenya Power and KURA, like on Statehouse road, I almost collapsed when I saw what had been done. I know they’re expanding the road, but sometimes we can avoid too much. A tree takes decades, decades to grow and then you cut it in one night,” Sakaja said.

Sakaja said the county would also require developers to maintain trees and green spaces within their developments, while calling for the preservation of Nairobi's boulevards.

“You plant the tree for other generations. We enjoy the shade of trees planted by other people before us who very likely didn’t enjoy that shade,” he said.

The governor also addressed Nairobi's water shortage, saying the city currently requires about 970 million litres of water per day, while existing sources provide about 525.6 million litres, leaving a deficit of approximately 444.4 million litres daily.

“Nairobi is water-scarce. There's a huge deficit of water in Nairobi, and it's because of the lack of significant investment over years in sources of water,” Sakaja said.

He said his administration had unlocked the Northern Collector Tunnel project, which he said has added 140 million litres of water per day to Nairobi's supply.

Sakaja further said engineers were developing a system to recover water currently lost during the treatment process, which he said could provide an additional 60 million litres per day.

Sakaja also spoke about Nairobi's preparedness for the expected El Niño rains, saying the county had brought together multiple agencies including Red Cross, road agencies like KURA and KENHA, and the rivers commission, and was preparing to dredge the Nairobi, Ngong and Mathare rivers and their tributaries.

He also defended the Dishi na County school feeding programme, saying it currently serves 316,000 children daily, while saying the programme had been backed by policy and legislation to ensure its continuity.

The governor further addressed the removal of illegal billboards, saying the county had taken action against structures that obstruct walkways.