Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya has encouraged Kenyans not to wait for designated areas to plant trees.
Tuya said Kenyans can decide to sacrifice and travel to their villages to plant trees on November 13, a day set aside for the national tree planting day.
She was speaking on Tuesday during a press conference where she said they have set a target of growing 100 Million Seedlings on November 13.
"Let us start by doing this on Monday by growing a cumulative 100 million seedlings, expand to 500 Million trees by Christmas this year, and steadily but surely progress towards the 15 Billion Trees by 2032," she said.
Tuya said to meet the 15 billion target in 10 years, Kenya needs to grow at least 1.5 billion trees each year.
"We should take up tree growing as a national duty, given the importance of trees in enhancing livelihoods and supporting our climate change resilience," she said.
The CS said growing 15 billion seedlings looks huge on paper but if broken down, it means that every Kenyan needs to grow 30 seedlings every year in 10 years.
"I would like to appeal to our partners and well-wishers including the Private Sector to support the accelerated tree growing activities and throughout the short rain season by among other interventions purchasing seedlings from private nurseries; Community-Based Organizations (CBO) and Community Forest Association (CFA) to ensure we have adequate seedlings from the short rains season and beyond," she said.
The CS further appealed to Kenyans to come out in numbers to grow at least two seedlings and document the growing on the Jaza Miti Application.
The Jaza Miti App is a mobile application that the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry has developed to monitor and track tree growth.
"If on the minimum 50 million of us Kenyans grow at least two seedlings on Monday next week, our Jaza Miti Application should be able to document an additional 100 million seedlings grown during the National Launch for this short rains tree growing day," Tuya said.
"We are encouraging all Kenyans to download it on their phones and document each tree they grow."
She said as Kenyans we have excelled severally in other spheres and it is therefore the turn for us to excel in our environment.
The CS said we should participate in rejuvenating our wetlands, and rivers, restoring our ecosystems as well and using landscapes and ecosystems to spur our economy.
"We look forward to a highly successful National Tree Growing Day on Monday, that will convince President William Ruto to make it an annual event," she said.
