Over a hundred acres of public wetland once used as a private area have been reclaimed in Nandi through an elaborate government multi-sectoral approach.
The campaign to repossess the wetlands peaked when President William Ruto ordered the aggressive national tree planting exercise of 15 billion trees in the next ten years.
Leaders who spoke on Tuesday during the National Tree Growing exercise in Aldai praised the Nandi community for accepting to surrender public wetlands for conservation measures.
Nandi South Deputy County Commissioner Mokin Ptanguny hailed successful public participation that ensured locals surrendered wetlands and other public spaces.
“We have engaged the members of the public through participatory engagement. We are still asking them to let spaces go once occupied for long,” Mokin insisted.
He praised Kipsiorori residents in Aldai for accepting a stretch of 58 acres of Matambaach Wetland as a public conservation area.
“We are asking the members of the public across the board to vacate public spaces because we have the intention to put in programmatic interventions that are of national benefit,” he added.
The DCC maintained that public land or space grabbed before should be surrendered for the government initiative interventions for public interest.
He said accumulative tree growing effort that is being done nationally is part of climate adaptation strategies.
“Strategy of planting trees is one of the ways of mitigating global warming effects that is cutting across all nations in Africa, across the world, Kenya being one of them,” he noted.
Jonah Tireito, Chief Officer in charge of Lands, Water, Environment and Climate Change also insisted that the County Government of Nandi with the help of Kenya Forest Service has reclaimed 150 acres of wetlands in Tinderet, Chesumei, Aldai, Emgwen and Aldai.
Tireito said that it was an elaborate plan to ensure all the wetlands that cover Nandi County, restored and put under conservation care.
“If we suffocate wetlands in Nandi, we will be destroying the livelihoods of people who are living down the stream,” he said.
He thanked the well-wishers who are funding the fencing of the reclaimed wetlands in Nandi and promised to ensure all planted trees are secure.
“We are asking our people to vacate all wetlands without interfering so that the ecosystem can take its own course,” said the county chief officer.
Tireito thanked the communities around wetlands who have ventured into alternative livelihoods and allow the government to reclaim these conservation points.
On his part, Nandi County Forest Conservator Dennis Kerengo said the government wasn’t encouraging agroforestry but asked them to embrace cut and carry of the grass which will grow alongside trees in conservation areas.
“So, it is win-win and we encourage that once these trees grow, local farmers can put in their beehives. We have talked to some NGOs around here and they have accepted to help interested farmers with bee hives,” he revealed.
He however urged the community to replace blue gum along the rivers with indigenous trees, bamboos and also fruit trees.
“Our target is 40 percent tree cover area but we are at 26 percent so we have a mammoth task as a community to achieve the target,” Kerengo said.
He also appealed to residents to surrender public lands within the conservation sites, riparian, wetland and also degraded hill slopes especially in Tinderet
“Let us stop cultivating slopes which are below 40 degrees and always follow the conservation advisories,” he added.
The County Conservator revealed that the number of trees grown in Nandi since the campaign began is approaching ten million and promised to achieve a 17 million target before the end of this year.
He committed that over 170 million trees in the ten years will be planted through an elaborate well laid plan.
Kerengo reiterated that farmers should plant trees in every free space with unlimited options like avocados, macadamia and many other environmentally friendly trees.
Kenya Forest Service, National Government Administrative Officers, the County Government of Nandi, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy and many other stakeholders are ensuring Nandi reaches its yearly target of 17 million trees Kerengo said.
During the exercise close to 4000 indigenous trees were planted in an exercise attended by Nandi County Wardend Augustine Langat who insisted that indigenous trees should be planted in all wetlands and public forests to encourage a variety of bird species and animals which will attract tourists in the county.
The locals agreed to support the conserved wetland and praised the public participation forums on the use of public wetlands which bore fruits as it resulted in a win-win arrangement.
By Geoffrey Satia
