National tree planting day

The Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has maintained that Kenya is on the right track to becoming a green economy.

Speaking during the National Tree Planting Day, Chirchir lauded President Ruto’s directive for setting up the day that enables the planting of trees to enable the achievement of 15 billion trees and 30 percent forest cover by 2032.

Achieving this target will help the country to experience better conservation of biodiversity, sustained livelihoods, improved climate resilience and improved socio-economic development of communities.

“Landscape and ecosystem restoration program aims to grow and nurture 15 billion trees. This will lead to the restoration and conservation of 10.6 million acres of degraded landscape and ecosystems. Increase forest cover from nine percent in 2022 to 30 percent in 2032,” added the CS.

The CS further noted that the country was a global leader in harnessing geothermal energy.

“For those who don’t know we are currently number six globally in geothermal development, we are providing leadership in terms of geothermal development, we are about 93 percent green country,” said the CS.

President Ruto declared Monday, 13 November 2023—a special public holiday to commemorate a national tree-planting day, saying that “Conservation of the environment is the urgent and collective responsibility of our time,”.

“Natural resources, particularly forests, play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance, enhancing biodiversity and sustaining the livelihoods of people and communities across our country,” he said.

On May 12,  2018, President Uhuru launched a national tree-planting drive that sought to plant at least 1.8 billion trees by 2022. The tree planting drive was replicated in 47 counties and targets to boost the country’s forest cover by 10 percent by 2022.