Government departments and other public institutions in Homa Bay County have targeted to plant an ambitious 4.3 million trees this tree planting season.
Government officials led by Principal Secretary for Roads Joseph Mbugua led the tree planting exercise in Gembe Hills, Suba North, during the Monday holiday.
Partners from various organisations, such as the Sigona Thomas Foundation, also joined in the exercise and expressed confidence that they will meet the target.
Also joining in the exercise were Homa Bay Commissioner Moses Lilan, Homa Bay County Executive Member for Water and Environment Joash Aloo, Sigona Thomas Foundation Chief Executive Officer Kepha Onyango, and Homa Bay UDA acting Chairman Kennedy Obuya.
“We are planting trees to make our country green by restoring forest cover not only in Homa Bay but the entire country,” Mbugua said.
Mbugua said they are starting with areas that have been exposed badly due to deforestation.
Mbugua urged Homa Bay residents to embrace the spirit of growing trees to enable the government to succeed in its efforts to fight the adversity of climate change.
“Let every resident of Homa Bay make growing trees a habit to enable us to fight the negative impact of climate change,” he said.
Lilan said the tree planting activity was done at designated places in all sub-locations in the county.
“I urge residents to cooperate in tree planting to enable us to achieve the required forest cover in our county. Trees are a source of wealth for human beings,” Lilan said.
Also, the Homa Bay County government has come up with a policy where they want mourners during funerals to plant not less than 100 trees.
“We have to come up with the best ways of increasing our forest cover, which is still as low as 3.18 per cent. I encourage all of us to embrace the idea,” Aloo said.
Onyango said they provided 10,000 trees during the launch, and they will continue sourcing seedlings for growing.
He said his foundation is ready for such cooperation to ensure the government achieves its agenda.
“We’ll work hand in hand with stakeholders in this to make Homa Bay green. The foundation has supported the planting of over 30,000 trees in Homa Bay and neighbouring counties,” Onyango said.
Obuya said they are partnering with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to plant trees along the roads.
“This will prevent our roads from getting eroded,” Obuya said.
By Davis Langat
