It's an arson fire that yesterday destroyed another good slice of the beautiful forest of Aberdare, north of Nairobi, within the national park of the same name, in Nyeri county.
More than 550 hectares of forest were destroyed by the flames that unknown arsonists set last Saturday night.
The fire, aided by strong winds, took hold in the green area of Eburru, a plateau of not excessively dense but abundant vegetation.
In a statement made to the national Daily Nation newspaper, Kenya Forest Service (KFS) director of the Central Highlands Conservancy, Samuel Ihure, the fire spread throughout the night and only yesterday morning, Monday, February 7, three of the five outbreaks had been extinguished.
"As of Monday morning, only two fires remained active," Ihure confirmed, "One has so far extinguished itself, leaving only one that was controlled by firefighters until Monday evening.
Fortunately, as the Mount Kenya Trust confirmed and some local conservationists wrote on their social profiles, the fires that split through the forests remained confined to the area, although they devastated about five square kilometers of the national park.
There were 35 firefighters on the scene Sunday, working in great difficulty because of the strong wind and the heat that spread. Yesterday, many volunteers joined them and as you read this article the other two fires should probably be contained as well.
It is not the first time that Aberdare and the green forest around Mount Kenya are attacked by flames, almost always at the hands of man who thinks so at the same time to get coal for domestic needs and to turn the forests into arable fields, without knowing that deforestation will act negatively on both crops and livestock, putting in serious difficulty the life of any herbivore and consequently that of the communities that live on livestock.
In October 2019, the hectares completely burned had been about seventy, thanks to the timely intervention of KDF brigades, firefighters and volunteers.
In March of the same year, a fire caused by the hand of man and magnified by the great drought and strong wind had instead destroyed more than 600 hectares of forest on the slopes of Mount Kenya and had then attacked the Aberdare area. Already in 2017 the forest had been affected by flames and had started from bamboo plantations.