Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has launched a conservation drive in the Cherangany Hills(CHERISH), warning that environmental degradation is fueling insecurity and resource-based conflict in the Kerio Valley.

Speaking during the Cherangany Peace and Conservation Run at Tebe Grounds in Kapyeego Ward, Elgeyo Marakwet County on Thursday, May 21, 2026, Murkomen said the once-rich water tower has suffered severe degradation, leading to drying rivers, shrinking forests and increased landslides.

Murkomen warned that decades of environmental neglect have had devastating consequences.

“The rains that were once predictable no longer are. Springs that once sang are now silent. Hillsides that were once green are now scarred. Rivers run heavy with silt. And where the forest once held the earth together, landslides now swallow homes and lives,” Murkomen stated.

Need for urgent restoration

According to Murkomen, the Cherangany Hills are an important water tower feeding over 22 rivers, requiring urgent restoration to secure thethe water supply and prevent future disasters.

He linked ecological destruction to insecurity in the wider Kerio Valley, where banditry and cattle rustling have persisted for years.

“Ecological destruction and insecurity are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have lasting peace on degraded land, and you cannot restore land in the middle of conflict. CHERISH addresses these two together,” Murkomen said.

He added that the new CHERISH programme will address both challenges simultaneously through environmental restoration and economic empowerment.

“When we plant trees, we are planting peace. When we restore a spring, we are reducing the reason neighbours fight,” he said.

Murkomen stated that the 10-year initiative, aligned with President William Ruto’s national tree-planting agenda, aims to restore more than 60,000 hectares of degraded land, rehabilitate forests and wetlands, and protect critical water sources.

He said this will restore degraded escarpments and land along rivers and also rehabilitate tens of thousands of hectares of forest and hundreds of hectares of wetlands.

Inside Chesongoch landslide

The launch of the initiative comes days after Murkomen warned that continued ecosystem destruction is now fueling a cycle of deadly disasters in the Kerio Valley.

The tragedy, which killed several people and displaced families in Chesongoch, was triggered by heavy rains that caused massive mudslides and rockfalls in the region, an area increasingly vulnerable to environmental degradation and unstable soils linked to deforestation.

Speaking during a partners’ roundtable meeting, Murkomen described the disaster as a stark warning that environmental destruction had evolved into a national security threat.

“Mother Earth is sending a message of distress through the increasing landslides. We need to act to save the Cherangany Hills ecosystem and the people who depend on it,” Murkomen said.