Shirley Akinyi Achieng, 12, is a passionate, resolute and focused young Miss Greening Champion who is on a mission to protect and conserve water towers and the Lake Victoria ecosystem through her various programmes in Kisumu County and beyond.
Currently, she is at the forefront of ensuring that the clarion call by President William Ruto to plant 15 billion trees in the next 10 years comes to fruition.
“I am an Environmentalist Climate Change activist and the Kisumu County Miss Greening Champion Ambassador. I desire to create a positive environmental impact in the globe,” said Shirley a Class 8 student at Arya Primary School, Kisumu Central Sub-County.
Through her Talk Show dubbed, “Tuongee Na Shirley,” she shares big, bold and nascent ideas with other participants on environment improvement which is geared towards humanity and for a better greener future.
Some of the environmental activities Shirley does include tree planting, educating her peers and awareness creation through different programmes she jointly undertakes with the county government and various school institutions.
“I have been planting trees in schools and when I was celebrating my last birthday while turning 12 years old, we planted more than 100 trees in Obinju Primary School, and I ensured that I planted more than 12 trees,” she happily revealed as she urged people to plant trees according to their age.
To express her passion, Shirley informs that tree planting gives us much-needed oxygen, adds more tree shades, and regulates the carbon dioxide cycle.
“I just want Kisumu County to be green and have oxygen because given that in our hospitals, patients find oxygen expensive to buy while the Almighty God has given it to us for free from trees,” she observes as she added that we need to plant more trees to have fresh oxygen and bring more rainfall.
The budding environmentalist revealed that she began her noble mission aged 9 years old after drawing a lot of inspiration from her mother.
“I used to see my mum plant trees and where we live, we have planted more than 30 trees and still counting,” she said.
Shirley made the remarks during an exclusive interview with KNA as she led various stakeholders in a tree planting exercise during the World Autism Day held at the Joyland Special Primary School in Kisumu Central Sub-County.
Sophia Atieno, the role model-mother to the young environmentalist, is the Executive Director of the Shirley Foundation and a conservationist who does community volunteer work in different greening activities within the county.
“I’m keen on making my county green because of the importance of trees, and that’s why I inspired my daughter to do the same. As a parent, I am happy that she has not only accepted the huge environmental task, but she also loves doing it and it’s in her heart,” said Sophia.
The Kisumu-based organization in conjunction with the county government and other non-state actors is keen on improving on the loss of biodiversity, deteriorating water quality and quantity, and declining agricultural productivity due to climate change through creating awareness in the community.
During most events, Sophia elaborated that the county government always assists them with fruit or organic trees to plant.
The sticking challenge they face as an organization is that during re-inspection of the planted trees, they find them destroyed by cattle in remote villages and schools which reduces the gains made.
She decried the deplorable situation as she called upon people to take advantage of the rainy season to plant more trees.
According to Ken Oyoo the Director of Environment and Conservation Kisumu County, they currently estimated Kisumu County Forest cover was at 1.86 per cent and a tree cover of 8. Per cent compared to 0.4 per cent five years ago when it was ranked the second last in the whole country.
To augment these efforts, they are working in close collaboration with Kenya Forest Service and other stakeholders to boost the forest cover within the county.
The Kisumu County Integrated Climate Change Action Plan (KCICCAP 2022-2027) seeks to further its development goals by providing the mechanisms and measures to achieve low carbon climate resilient development in a manner that prioritizes adaptation (risk and vulnerability), mitigation (Baseline Emission Inventory) and access to energy by vulnerable groups, including women, children, youth, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and the marginalized.
KCICCAP identifies some of the key actions that will include the development in Implementation of the County Disaster Management policy, increasing tree and forest cover to 10 per cent and implementing the County Energy Plan (CEP) which stresses the improvement of renewable energy uptake in the community.
Shirley said that she was appointed the Miss Greening Ambassador during the Kisumu County Street Festival held in December 2022 which was graced by Governor Anyang Nyong’o and the Kisumu city Manager Abala Wanga and other leaders.
To address the loss of our biodiversity, she points out that in their schools, they are normally given the opportunity every (Monday and Friday) to talk to their fellow peers about degrading environmental issues like how to dispose of their waste.
In her zeal to conserve the environment outside the county, Shirley has attended conferences in Nairobi to champion a multi-faceted approach from all the stakeholders to reduce the amount of disaster risk occasioned by Climate change.
In her parting shot, Shirley’s bits of advice for people is to plant more trees and when they buy their sodas in plastic bottles, they should practice proper disposal of them well as they are a very big threat to marine life.
“Lake Victoria right now is highly polluted and smells bad. We are now trying to put more effort to sensitize the people to be wary of the hazardous activities which contribute to Climate Change,” she noted.
By Rolex Omondi
