Nairobi — Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has called on Kenyans to support the ongoing national tree planting exercise in a bid to decelerate climate change.
He made the remarks Friday even as he also urged Kenyans to plant at least one tree on June 1 in commemoration of the country's attainment of self-internal rule from the Bristish.
Speaking at Egerton University's Njoro campus in Nakuru county when he led the planting of 10,000 trees, Mudavadi said it is time as a country we draw efforts towards fighting the global warming pandemic that is turning out to be a global catastrophe as a result of climate change.
"We want all Kenyans to be part of this adopt a forest initiative, tunza miti ili ilikutunze. If every one of the 40 million Kenyans, plants one or two trees during this years' Madaraka day, we will hit a 60 million mark in a day," said Mudavadi.
Prime Cabinet Secretary said the government's target of planting at least 15 billion trees by 2032, will only be realized if concerted efforts are pulled together by government, stakeholders and the citizens.
He said Kenyans should embrace this initiative since the effects of global warming brought by climate change affects everybody and is not only a threat to human life but also to animals and other living things including food.
"Statistics show that recently the global standard temperatures rose by 3 degrees as a result of global warming. This is a sign that global warming is a real threat to life now and in the near future," he said.
300 trees per capita
Mudavadi stated that the Environment Ministry had set a target for every Kenyan to at least plant 300 trees in the next 10 years, which will amount to planting at least 30 trees annually for the country to achieve our target by 2032.
The Prime Cabinet Secretary further said, for us as a country to be food secure, we have to work together towards conserving our environment for us to be sure of receiving adequate rainfall, and breeding an environment that will be fit for agriculture and food production.
"Recently we have experienced as a country the worst drought situation in over 40 years whereby statistics show that at least 2.5 million herds of livestock lost life with a decrease of 20 million bags of maize harvest from 50 million to 30 million bags in the last harvest. This should be an awakening call for us as a country," Mudavadi said.
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He further pointed out that the drought affected the lives of more than four million Kenyans and the socio-economic losses resulting from climate change over the past decade, amount to an estimated three to five percent of the national GDP.
Institution-led efforts
Mudavadi used the event to applaud the Egerton University management for standing out and stepping forward as one of the key institutions that is partnering with government to realize the much-needed forest cover under trees in the country.
He said such partnerships are a gateway towards encouraging Kenyans to support the government's initiative.
"With this event, we could be preparing the university to tap into on the vast opportunities presented by the global carbon market through carbon trading." said Mudavadi.
"Kenyans should take advantage of the rains to plant as many trees as possible and practice water harvesting at the family level, especially in areas prone to drought and floods. But let us protect catchment areas by planting trees," he added.
Mudavadi also assured the management of Egerton University that through its collaboration with government in undertaking the tree planting initiative, the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary will scale up its engagements with university to ensure that such initiatives are supported from time to time.
