Court revokes permits to set up golf range, restaurant in Ngong Road Forest

The Environment and Land Court has declared that the government unlawfully approved the establishment of a private golf range and luxury restaurant inside Ngong Road Forest.

A judgment delivered by Justice Anne Omollo found that the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) issued the permits for the construction of the hotel, golf range, and mini-golf park inside the forest in violation of the Constitution.

Court says the approvals were done without meaningful public participation and in a process so fundamentally flawed that the licences were invalid from the moment they were signed.

 "A Declaration is hereby made that the issuance of Special Use Licence LIC005/2023 to Karura Golf Range Limited for the development, operation and management of a golf range, restaurant and mini golf park within Miotoni Block in Ngong Road Forest contravenes and violates Articles 1, 2, 10, 35(1), 42(a & b), 47, 60, 62, 66 and 69 of the Constitution as read together with the Forest Management and Conservation Act... and is invalid, null and void," Justice Omollo stated.

The judge made an identical declaration in respect of NEMA EIA Licence No. NEMA/EIA/PSL/3643, finding it equally unconstitutional and void, having been issued in contravention of the Environmental Management and Coordination Act and the Environmental (Impact Assessment and Audit) Regulations, 2003.

Justice Omollo found that both KFS and Nema acted outside their statutory mandates in granting the approvals.

Further, the judge found that the KFS Special Use Licence had been issued for a purpose the law does not allow, a private commercial venture.

It also found that Nema had contradicted itself by acknowledging, after issuing the licence, that critical risk assessments it should have demanded upfront had never been done.

The decision came after Law Society of Kenya (LSK) filed a petition in January 2025  after the public learned in November 2024 of the planned commercial development.

This was through publication of the Nema licence, that Karura Golf Range Limited had been granted approvals to develop the Miotoni Block of the 1,224-hectare gazetted forest.

The petitioner argued that the nearly 18-month gap between the forest licence and the EIA licence, during which the public was kept in the dark, was itself evidence of the opacity surrounding the project.

The LSK through its Chief Executive Officer Florence Muturi argued that the licences had been obtained through an opaque process that shut out the public and bypassed constitutional and statutory safeguards designed to protect Kenya's forests.

A central finding of the judgment was that no lawful public participation had taken place.

The only consultation the company could point to was a presentation made to the management committee of the Ngong Road Forest Association in 2021, but even that was confined to the golf range, with no mention of the restaurant that was ultimately included in both licences.

 "I have perused all the annexures produced by the 1st Respondent(Karura Golf Range Limited) but I did not find any evidence speaking to public consultations. The EIA report did not specify any dates scheduled for such public meetings or for the distribution of questionnaires," Justice Omollo held, adding that the limited engagement fell far short of the purposive and meaningful participation the Supreme Court has said the Constitution demands.

The court also found that KFS had issued the Special Use Licence for a purpose the Forest Conservation and Management Act does not permit.

The Act confines such licences to activities whose primary purpose yields public benefit in transportation, communication, energy, research or education, a definition a private golf range and restaurant plainly cannot meet.

KFS's through Chief Conservator Alex Lemarkoko attempt to justify the licence on revenue grounds fared no better, with the judge finding the explanation had been "dropped like a coin" without any link to sustainable forest management.

KFS emphasised that the licence restricted the project to non-permanent developments that would not damage trees, and maintained the petition was misconceived and an abuse of the court process.

 Meanwhile, Nema was found to have contradicted itself by having suspended the EIA licence in December 2024 on the ground that critical risk assessments had not been done, the authority should have revoked it entirely.

 "The 2nd Respondent, having observed that there was a need to carry out a comprehensive qualitative risk assessment, ought to have revoked a licence that was granted without the risk assessment being undertaken," Justice Omollo held.

Karura Golf Range Limited, through its director Harpal Choda, denied any wrongdoing and asserted that both licences were issued following due regulatory scrutiny and stakeholder engagement.

The company drew a distinction between a golf range and a full golf course, arguing that a golf range is a limited recreational facility requiring significantly less land modification.

 It maintained that the controversy was fuelled by misinformation circulating on social media that had mischaracterised the project as a land grab.  

The company also stated that it had suffered financial and reputational harm from the controversy that the suspension was procedurally unfair as it was imposed without notice or a hearing, and that the project was included in the Ngong Road Participatory Forest Management Plan 2024–2028, an instrument involving multiple stakeholders.

The court issued orders of certiorari formally quashing both licences and orders of prohibition permanently restraining Nema, KFS and the Cabinet Secretary for Environment from implementing or reinstating them.

The Kenya Pipeline Corporation, which had issued only a limited conditional no-objection for works within its 30-metre pipeline wayleave traversing the forest, was fully discharged from the proceedings.