An Environmental Conservation Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Youth Action Kenya, has mapped out four sites to plant trees in Kakamega, as part of their contribution towards sustainable development.
The tree planting exercise which will take place between the 26th to 29th this month, is the NGO’s Future-in-a-Million trees project, aimed at planting 100, 000 trees by the end of 2022.
The NGO which was registered in 2020, started off at Egerton University, as Egerton University Volunteers Group.
Today it draws members from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Zetech University, Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), Maasai Mara University, Kenyatta University and the Technical University of Kenya (TUK).
Speaking to KNA, the Chairperson of the Organization, David Omondi, said they will plant both indigenous and fruit trees distributed at, Milimani Primary School (1,500), Shitoli polytechnic (2,000), St. Jerome Secondary School (1,500) and Kambiri hills (5,000).
He said the tree planting exercise is sponsored by the German Imaging Technologies (GIT), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Sassan Dieter Khatib-Shahidi, in partnership with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Kakamega County Government and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), among other willing partners
Omondi noted that the tree planting exercise is an ongoing campaign that started way back in 2018 across the country amongst other environmental conservation efforts, focusing on greening the environment and waste management.
“We also participate in training, seminars and workshops on environmental conservation,” he added.
He said, since they started, they have carried out environmental projects in Nakuru, Njoro, Nakuru town, Egerton University and Narok County.
This year, they started by planting mangroves in Mombasa during their four-day tree planting exercise before rolling out activities in Western Kenya.
“We have, therefore, shifted to Western part of Kenya, Kakamega County, where we focus on planting 10, 000 trees, including 1,000 fruit tree species. With the fruit trees, we shall have provided food for both humans and animals for a decade,” he added.
