Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya has revealed plans by the government to ensure that 20 per cent of the trees planted in the ongoing tree-growing programme are fruit-bearing species.
Speaking during the second week of the tree planting exercise at Bairunyi, Chogoria Forest Station in Tharaka Nithi County, the CS noted that they were working on a programme to intensify the propagation of seedlings to ensure that 20 per cent of the trees planted are fruit trees and another 20 per cent are fodder trees to be planted in arid and semi-arid areas in the country.
Ms. Tuya underscored the need for a multi-government approach in collaboration with the community to deliver the government’s target to ensure food security and support livelihoods across the country, adding that the programme would also ensure job creation.
“I am here to support the executive in attaining their mandate. Each Cabinet Secretary has an allocated site, while each ministry will be in charge of growing trees in two counties. This is a demonstration of the need for a whole government and a whole society. This is not an initiative just for the government to deliver, and we must do it together,” the CS said.
CS Tuya noted the need to make sure trees planted are grown and protected to maturity, asking Kenyans to shift from just planting to growing trees.
In the coming weeks, she acknowledged that the programme would be conducted across the 31 gazetted hills in Tharaka Nithi County.
Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, who oversaw the planting of 10,000 trees at Chogoria Forest Station, said the government was going to prioritise dry land areas in the county by preparing enough seedlings, which will be planted during rainy seasons.
Mr. Koskei said their primary target as a government is to reclaim the degraded environment and that the nation was on course to achieve the 15 billion target trees to be planted within 10 years.
“I urge everyone to continue planting trees. We shall be here every month to ensure we reach the target, our trees are kept well, and they are protected so that our environment is also protected to mitigate against climate change that has affected the entire world,” Mr. Koskei asserted.
Also present at the event were Maara Member of Parliament Kareke Mbiuki, Deputy Governor Wilson Nyaga, and Kenya Wildlife Service Director General Dr. Erustus Kanga.
Cabinet Secretaries, through a directive from the cabinet, were asked to set aside a day every month to rally their ministry staff, departments, and agencies, as well as host communities around their designated sites, to attend to tree-growing.
The Executive Office of the President under the Head of Public Service has been assigned Chogoria Forest in Tharaka Nithi County and Chepalungu Forest in Bomet County and has a target of growing 1 million trees annually.
By David Mutwiri and Blaise Gitonga
