Forest conservation has posed challenges as the government redouble effort to save and maintain the internationally required minimum of 10 percent forest cover.
However, local innovators have conserved and protected forests without carrying out any campaigns or using forest guards.
They have simply given alternative concrete fencing and roofing posts which are more durable and affordable.
One of the innovators in Nakuru city, Engineer Philemon Omwega, has reduced the usage of fencing and roofing posts to a mere minimum by producing cheaper and user-friendly materials that are currently in high demand.
Interviewed by KNA today Engineer Omwega said the magnificence and importance of technology was the fact that, it gives alternatives without any form of entreaty or petition and it extends the most important aspect of business and development choices.
He said the president’s appeal for ten billion trees to be planted over the next decade, by 2023, would easily be achieved once communities embrace concrete posts and forget about timbers ones.
However, he said the assembling of the concrete-making machine wasn’t a walk in the park and he’s excited that finally, he’s able to protect forests, albeit in his small way. He called on other local visionaries to dream big and solve the country’s pressing problems.
He commended the county of Baringo for the huge tender they have extended to his company and said he was willing to work with all counties, especially in forest conservation, and solve their struggles of sewerage management by modernizing bio-digesters that would assist local farmers in getting much cheaper fertilizers.
The concrete-making machine that’s located at the ‘sewage estate’ because it’s next to the main plant in the city, has attracted locals due to the creation of employment for their children. And they keep on requesting the engineer to make the production 24-hour process in order to increase jobs for the youth.
Data from the National Forest Resources Assessment 2021, indicated that the country has 7.1 million hectares of national forest cover which represents 8.83 percent of the total area.
Forest cover is unevenly distributed across the country, and the deforestation of Mau forest, which is a major water tower has always heightened political temperatures in the country.
By Veronica Bosibori
