The Kenya Prisons Staff Training College in Ruiru has availed 997,400 tree seedlings through the government’s Greening Kenya Initiatives for planting during the current rainy season.
The move is part of Kenya’s initiative to plant 1.8 billion trees and achieve more than 10% forest cover in the country by 2022.
The Greening Kenya initiative has been one of the largest seedlings producing entities as it targets to produce 50 million seedlings and rehabilitate 2,471 acres using the existing infrastructure of the Kenya Prisons and the National Youth Service (NYS).
Inspector Boniface Kaloki from Kenya Prisons Staff Training College in Ruiru who is an expert in planting nursery trees speaking to KNA on Wednesday in Ruiru said that the second phase is targeting to produce two million nursery trees.
The second phase started last year which was given the target of 2 million for indigenous trees for forestry and some 150,000 fruit trees including avocado, mango and macadamia.
Kaloki said that the ongoing tree planting efforts are geared towards increasing Kenya’s forest cover from the current 7.2 per cent to the constitutional target of 10 per cent.
He added that the project has been funded by the government of Kenya in collaboration with the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and other well-wishers.
By Hamdi Mohamud
