Baringo Governor, Benjamin Cheboi, has urged youth across the County to embrace green skills, to enable them acquire knowledge and skills that are sustainable and resource efficient for the betterment of the society.
Cheboi was speaking at the County Assembly Chambers in Kabarnet town, during the celebration of International Youth Week Thursday, where he instructed all departments in the County, to ensure youth inclusivity in decision making to strengthen the youth voice on climate change related policy process and access to finance for climate actions.
“Climate change issues have been a great challenge and as a County we are most affected and therefore the policies on dealing with the issue through tree planting should be taken seriously,” Cheboi said.
Youth Senate Director General, Dennis Sankale, said it was important to mainstream youth participation in governance and celebrate achievements of young people by bringing together policy makers to dialogue on pertinent issues facing the youth and offer solutions to the challenges.
“We are here today to strengthen the youth voice on climate change and climate action and as we know Baringo County is one of the counties that has come up with structures to enable them access funds for programmes. The county government will work in collaboration with the community in combating effects of climate change at the grassroot level,” Sankale said.
Sankale noted that they had identified areas where youth could tap into in terms of accessing the funds to implement initiatives at the county and grassroots level to mitigate effect of climate change
He added that the establishment of environment committees to champion for climate action and gaps had been identified gap whereby youth were not included, which the governor addressed promising inclusion of youth in the decision-making process.
Baringo County Assembly Speaker, Vincent Kemboi, lauded the youths for their commitment in bringing into completion the Policy Document, while urging them to register Community-Based Organisations and youth groups, to take advantage of climate action funds to help mitigate the effects of climate change.
Baringo County Youth Forum Speaker, Evans Barsongol, thanked the County Government for giving youth platforms to make policies, interact and discuss issues involving access to funds for climate action projects.
“I want to encourage fellow youth to take part in Public participation forums at ward levels so as to allocate funds to mitigate the effects of climate change,” Barsongol said.
Mary Njeri from Marigat, Baringo South Sub- County said the opportunity for youth to create policies to avert the effects of climate change was paramount as the effects of rising lakes had affected livelihoods of residents and encouraged youth to plant trees and control herding to avoid soil erosion.
By Caroline Cherono and Ivor Parklea
