President directs police recruits to plant 30 million trees
By Alvin.Mwangi, January 12, 2023President William Ruto yesterday directed police officers to team up with the military as part of the government’s efforts to combat drought.
Speaking yesterday during the 58th Administration Police passing-out parade at the National Police College in Embakasi, the Head of State asked the recruits to plant at least 30 trees each.
He said Kenyans have to partake in the whole reconstruction process of afforestation to ensure the effect of the climate change is reversed by planting five billion trees.
“I have asked the Commandant of this campus (Embakasi A) and the one at GSU campus and all those working in our security here in Nairobi to plant 30 million trees.”
Cumulatively, more than 5,000 police graduates will be released this week after training for nine months at various National Police Service colleges.
If they all follow through on the President’s directive, the country could see another 150,000 trees planted over the next month. During his birthday on December 21, 2022, President Ruto planted 56 trees to mark his 56th birthday at Ngong Hills Forest, as other counties held similar functions that saw a total of 560,000 trees planted.
“To a considerable extent, these adversities are the direct and indirect consequences of human failure to observe its ecological imperative,” Ruto said.
He went on: “Instead of preserving the integrity of the planet’s vital systems to enhance the Earth’s livability for all of creation, we have embarked on thoughtless exploitation and the insidious pursuit of prosperity in ways that do not take environmental costs into account.”
Severe degradation
“Seventy per cent of Kenya’s livestock and 90 per cent of our wild game inhabit our rangelands. At the same time, over 90 per cent of the country’s landscapes are, regrettably, undergoing one form of degradation or another. Of these endangered landscapes, 61 per cent face high-intensity degradation, while 27 per cent are under severe degradation,” he added.
President has already announced a plan to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 as part of his climate change mitigation agenda. To achieve the goal, Ruto asked every Kenyan, children included, to work towards growing 100 trees each.
“Every Kenyan, 50 million of us, must plant at least 100 trees, either in your compound, in your farm or in any other place you find… that is the surest way for us to turn around the climate so that we can have water, grow crops, do dams, agro-processing and make sure we have prosperity,” he said at a past event.
He reiterated his government’s commitment to scaling up the country’s forest cover, which surpassed the 10 per cent threshold set out in the Constitution after the National Forest Resources Assessment Report 2021 recorded the national forest cover at 12 per cent.
The country, however, missed a target of 15 per cent national forest cover set by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.
“We must do our bit as a nation; for us to have water, the way we have in this dam, we must mind our environment as a country we have made the policy decision that we must plant 5 billion trees,” he said.
Kenya is among countries in the Horn of Africa affected by the current severe drought that has left millions across the region in dire need of food aid.
Decline in livestock prices, an increase in cereal prices, and the general increase in prices of most consumer goods continue to undermine the purchasing power of households, exacerbating food insecurity in ASAL counties.