The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has been accused of harassing co-petitioners in a case challenging the relocation of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage to make it part of the larger Bomas International Conference Complex. The proposal would carve out between 76 and 89 acres inside Nairobi National Park for upgrades to wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facilities. Conservationists are concerned that the facility, which will include parking for 1,300 vehicles, poses threats to a protected indigenous forest and habitat for the critically endangered black rhino. On July 16, the Environment and Land Court in Nairobi ordered its deputy registrar Vincent Kiplagat to visit the park in the presence of all parties to prepare and file a report about the proposed facility. The Nairobi-based NGO Save the Nairobi National Park (SaveNNP) said it was denied court-ordered access to the site. In a statement sent to Mongabay, SaveNNP condemned “threats and intimidation” by KWS personnel. In the same statement, SaveNNP and JustAct, another Nairobi-based NGO, accused the KWS of planning to “control the narrative and ensure the voice of Kenyans was not heard by the courts or the media while on site.” Similar claims were made by Friends of Nairobi National Park. Mongabay asked KWS spokesperson Duncan Wanyama for a comment and was referred to a local media report in which Wanyama said the visitors were not obstructed and that rangers were just enforcing standard protocols within the park. The activists said they were later allowed in, but “only once the court officers, KWS…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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