A high-profile protest against proposed development inside one of Africa’s most iconic urban wildlife reserves has landed Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga in police custody, igniting widespread condemnation from human rights and environmental organizations over the treatment of peaceful activists. On Monday, Maraga — who leads the opposition United Green Movement and is a widely speculated 2027 Kenyan presidential candidate — joined nine fellow demonstrators for a march along a highway bordering Nairobi National Park, a 117-square-kilometer protected conservation area and major tourist attraction located directly within Kenya’s capital. The demonstration was organized to oppose plans that activists claim would turn a portion of the park’s protected land into a 1,300-vehicle public car park, part of a broader development deal tied to a neighboring convention center.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the government agency that manages the park, has publicly pushed back against the activists’ allegations, defending its approved projects within the reserve. While KWS has not directly addressed the car park claims, it confirmed plans to construct a new, expanded animal orphanage on an 89-acre plot — just 0.31% of the park’s total area, according to a KWS official quoted by local outlet *The Star*. KWS argues the relocated orphanage will deliver meaningful benefits: enhanced care for rescued wildlife, improved veterinary training opportunities for local conservationists, and a more accessible, engaging experience for the millions of visitors who visit the park each year. The agency also notes that public consultation was held for the orphanage project prior to approval.
Footage shared on social media captured the chaotic end to Monday’s demonstration, showing Kenyan police moving in to disperse the crowd of protesters, who had staged a sit-in on the two-lane highway. Video clips show the 72-year-old former top judge, wearing his party’s signature green attire, being assisted into the back of a police transport truck as surrounding demonstrators chanted “Long live the park” in protest. Maraga and the nine other detained activists were taken into police custody following the dispersal. Though Maraga was granted release shortly after his arrest, he refused to exit the police station until all other detained protesters were freed, a demonstration of solidarity with his fellow activists.
Following his detention, Maraga took to social media platform X to outline the motivations for the protest, writing that he and the other detainees were “fellow patriotic Kenyans” demanding that the country’s “national heritage and environment must be safeguarded from greed and unnecessary destruction without public participation.” So far, Kenyan police have not issued any official public statement regarding the circumstances of the arrests or the reasons for detention.
The arrests have drawn sharp criticism from a coalition of leading global and local rights and environmental groups. In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Greenpeace Africa, Friends of Nairobi National Park, and The Green Belt Movement strongly condemned what they called a violent dispersal of peaceful demonstrators. The groups emphasized that the use of force against Kenyan citizens exercising their constitutionally protected rights to peaceful assembly, free expression, and public participation in environmental decision-making is completely unacceptable. The incident has reignited national debate in Kenya over the balance between infrastructure development and the protection of critical natural heritage, particularly as political actors gear up for the 2027 general election.