The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Soipan Tuya has commended Kenyans for heeding the government call to plant trees.
In a statement on Tuesday, Tuya said Kenyans displayed immense patriotism during the National Tree Planting Day held on Monday which saw the government surpass the 150 million trees target.
“We all braved the wet and cold conditions in most parts of the country to come out in our millions yesterday, fronted by our leaders at all levels to grow trees in support of the environment and deep love for our Country, Kenya!” she said.
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The CS urged Kenyans to continue planting and growing trees during the ongoing short rains season, during which the government aims to reach a target of 500 million seedlings by Christmas.
“Countrywide returns that we continue to receive indicate that we surpassed the 150 million target for the day, with ‘Jaza Miti’ App indicating close to 7,000 new entries. We encourage those that grew trees yesterday but didn’t record on the app, to do so, to enable us keep track of the activity,” said Tuya.
She thanked every Kenyan for taking part and heeding the Government’s call to grow trees on the ‘Green Holiday’, and encouraged everyone to continue growing trees especially during the ongoing short rains season.
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To monitor all planted trees, the government plans to utilize the ‘Jaza Miti’ app which is available on Google Play Store and iphone Operating System (IOS). The app facilitates tree planting programs by allowing users to select suitable tree species for planting based on their location and monitor the growth of documented trees over time.
The tree planting exercise is part of the government’s efforts to achieve the set target of 15 billion trees by 2032.
