Environment Principal Secretary Ephantus Kimotho Kimani began his assignment after taking the oath of office by touring several forests distributed across the country including those in Elgeyo Marakwet county.
Speaking outside the governor’s office in Iten, Kimotho said they are ready to help improve forest cover by offering seeds and that the governor will only need to look for nurseries, where youths can be employed to nurture the seedlings.
“We only want the governor to give us nurseries, tubes, and the budget so that we can be able to proceed to achieve maximum tree coverage,” the PS said.
According to Kimotho, once the nurseries are established, the beneficiaries will be reporting on the progress of the nurseries after every three months and expressed confidence that they are going to win in this effort.
Kimotho who was among the 51 nominees for principal secretaries (PS) who took the oath of office on Friday took over from Dr. Chris Kiptoo who was transferred from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to the National Treasury.
Kiptoo who accompanied the PS said that some people are living on encroached forest land and it is good that they see how to address the issue.
“In Embobut forest, people are living in forest land and together with the PS, we need to look at what we can do. All these details will be announced later once the issue has been agreed upon in the Cabinet,” he said.
Kiptoo added that the president has started a new program called the Presidential Program for Acceleration of Forest Restoration and Rehabilitation. The target of this program according to him is to achieve 30 per cent of forest cover. Currently, the forest cover is at 12 per cent.
Elgeyo Marakwet County is second in terms of forest cover in Kenya with 37 per cent after Nyeri county.
The PSs were welcomed by Elgeyo-Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich and Marakwet East MP Kangogo Bowen.
By Allan Bwire and Alice Wanjiru
