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Kenya must intensify its efforts to plant more trees, lest it falls below the 10 per cent coverage required by law. The Jubilee administration says it has achieved the lawfully required forest cover since taking office in 2013, but the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (Rerec) chief executive Peter Mbugua has cautioned against laxity.

Speaking in Turkana during a tree planting event, Mbugua called for continuous afforestation.

Tree planting should not stop. We risk sliding back to below 10 per cent forest cover if we do not sustain our efforts.

At Rerec, will continue planting trees. We encourage you to do the same,” he added at the weekend.

When he delivered his last Madaraka Day speech as Head of State, President Uhuru Kenyatta said his administration had deliberately focused on planting more trees nationwide to improve the cover that was at 6.99 per cent when he took over power in 2013.

He said the cover is now above 10 per cent, the lawfully required figure, after planting of 1.34 billion trees. He also praised efforts to conserve Mau Forest.

“To halt the destruction of water towers, a dream that had eluded other administrations, we contained the encroachment and illegal extraction activities at the water towers in Maasai Mau Forest Complex,” the President said.

Meanwhile, Mbugua said they would continue to supply seedlings to public and private institutions. “Rerec has planted over 23,000 seedlings in different parts of the country over the past five years.

Today, we shall be planting 2,000 trees and donating 3,000 seedlings to communities in Turkana County,” he said.

He added that Rerec was on course to take over the country’s energy centres, in line with its fresh mandate. In 2019, Rerec, initially named Rural Electrification Authority (Rea), was renamed to include renewable energy functions.

“The corporation will soon be taking over the management of energy centres whose main objective is to upscale the uptake of renewable energy in Kenya.

This is a function that has been transferred from the Ministry of Energy,” he said. “Kenya has 16 energy centres, one of which is the Lodwar Energy Centre.

Our target is to have these centres in all the 47 counties,” he added. In Turkana, Rerec has electrified 416 primary schools and 20 secondary schools using solar energy.