When construction of a number of roads in Lilongwe City started in 2021, there was an uproar from environmentalists that the city would lose a combined decades-old 1,392 trees lined along Kenyatta Drive and Mzimba Street.
Of these, 317 were mahogany (mibawa) trees.
However, the authorities allayed fears about the loss, saying the trees would be used to make desks for schools in the city.
We followed up on the matter.
Mayor for Lilongwe City Council, Richard Banda, told Malawi News this week that the council produced 780 desks.
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“We distributed them to three primary schools; it was about 780 desks,” said Banda.
On the other hand, Ministry of Education spokesperson Mphatso Nkuonera said the ministry received 720 desks from the council.
“The desks were as follows: 320 for primary schools and 400 for secondary schools,” he said.
Asked to give names of the schools where the desks were distributed, both of them could not give the names.
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For education policy expert, Limbani Nsapato, it was a good idea to make desks out of the trees.
But he questions that only around 700 desks could have been produced from that amount of trees.
“I think initially the idea of making desks from the mibawa trees was good, but looking at the figures presented by the Ministry of Education, they are on the lower side,” said Nsapato, calling for an audit.
Among those that protested the felling of the trees was environmentalist Mathews Malata.
According to him, based on some calculations that were done then, the mahogany trees alone were valued at nearly K1.5 billion.
At that figure, 700 desks is an inadequate number, he said.
“The council did an auction for some of those trees, and they need to account for every tambala and every tree. They should publish details of how the trees were sold and used, who bought them, and for how much.
“A list of schools that benefited, including the quantifications they received, should also be published. The whole process was a mess,” Malata said.
On October 2, 2021, the then Lilongwe City Council Chief Executive Officer, John Chome, said it was a difficult balancing act in the city to keep the trees while the city also needed development to improve the quality of life of the people.
He admitted that the road project would lead to loss of biodiversity.
“I would like to assure the people of Lilongwe that they should not worry too much because we are going to build back better in the sense that as soon as this rainy season starts, we are going to start replanting the avenue trees that are going to be lost through the construction of these major roads.
“We are going to replace these trees, in this case also with better varieties, more beautiful varieties, so that five to 10 years from now, the people of Lilongwe can see more beautiful streets than before,” Chome said.
The Kenyatta road expansion project starts from the Parliament roundabout through the Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary, the Kamuzu Central Hospital roundabout, Tsoka Market and Shoprite on M1 Road.
Much of this stretch was lined up by mibawa trees then.
