Embrace growing of trees - PS Mbugua urges Homa Bay residents

The national and Homa Bay government officials on Monday launched a tree planting exercise aimed at growing more than 4.3 million trees in the county.

The officials in partnership with various organizations such as the Sigona Thomas Foundation said they want to undertake the exercise progressively until the meet the target.

Principal Secretary for Roads Joseph Mbugua, Homa Bay Commissioner Moses Lilan, Homa Bay executive member for Water and Environment Joash Aloo and Sigona Thomas Chief Executive Officer Kepha Onyango led residents in planting trees.

They planted more than 20,000 trees at Gembe Hills in Suba North constituency as they marked the Monday holiday.

Homa Bay UDA acting chairman Kennedy Obuya was also present.

“We’re planting trees to make our country green besides increasing and restoring forest cover not only in Homa Bay but the entire country,” Mbugua said.

Speaking during the launch of the exercise, Mbugua said they are starting with areas which have been exposed to low forest cover due to deforestation.

Mbugua urged Homa Bay residents to embrace the spirit of growing trees to enable the government to succeed in its efforts to fight the adversity of climate change.

“Let every resident of Homa Bay make growing trees a habit to enable us to fight the negative impact of climate change,” he said.

Lilan said the tree planting activity was done at designated places in all sub-locations in the county.

“I urge residents to cooperate in tree planting to enable us to achieve the required forest cover in our county. Trees are a source of wealth for human beings,” Lilan said.

Aloo said the Homa Bay government has come up with a policy where they want funeral attendees and those who celebrate their birthdays to plant not less than 100 trees.

“We have to come up with the best ways of increasing our forest cover which is still as low as 3.18 per cent. I encourage all of us to embrace the idea,” Aloo said.

Onyango said they provided 10,000 trees during the launch and they will continue sourcing seedlings for growing.

He said his foundation is ready for such cooperation to ensure the government achieves its agenda.

“We’ll work hand in hand with stakeholders in this to make Homa Bay green. The foundation has supported planting of over 30,000 trees in Homa Bay and Migori counties,” Onyango said.

Obuya said they are partnering with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to plant trees along the roads.

“This will prevent our roads from getting eroded,” Obuya said.