In 1998, the Karura forest was a battlefield.The late Prof. Wangari Maathai led protests here to oppose the excision of parts of the forest to private developers. The violent battles between police and protestors saw Prof. Maathai lose some of her hair, but the effort seems to have paid off, the then president Daniel Moi banned allocation of forests in 1999.Indeed Karura forest came to symbolize the controversial and illegal allocations of land in the country, it also came to be known as a carjackers and gangsters destination.