Daughters of Zion, a fourteen-member group of professionals drawn from various parts of the country on Monday took their environmental conservation programme to Kamariny village in Kapenguria Constituency, West Pokot County where they planted hundreds of indigenous trees.
Led by their chairperson Rebecca Kiplagat, the group said the initiative was in support of President William Ruto’s agenda of growing 15 billion tree seedlings by 2032.
“We rally behind the government’s call that we need to increase our forest cover from the current 12% to 30% by 2032 and that is why we have planted these indigenous trees in this place,” Kiplagat said.
Group’s treasurer, Emily Rotich further said every Kenyan has a role in the conservation of the environment.
She called on all actors to be at the forefront of planting trees.
“We should not wait for others to plant trees but we should take it upon ourselves as our sole responsibility,” Rotich appealed.
Loice Rono, a member of the group stated that there is a direct relationship between environmental conservation and food security.
“Food security begins with environmental conservation. An environmentally conscious nation is a food secure nation because some of the trees are fruits with some nutritional value and therefore we urge you to plant some fruit trees in your farms,” Rono said.
Carbon credits business
In addition, Noel Tiyoy, a teacher at M-PESA Foundation Academy implored Kenyans to consider venturing into the carbon credits business.
She said, “The government of Kenya has shown a lot of interest in environmental conservation and carbon credits is one very lucrative business one can venture in.”
“Some people are already earning from the carbon credit business and we should also venture into this enterprise.”
The group also called on members of the public not to cultivate along river banks.
They said incidents of flooding experienced in some parts of the country are attributed to siltation caused by cultivation upstream.
According to a 2018 report from the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), West Pokot’s forest cover stood at 4.4%.
Several interventions have since been put in place by the National government, the County Government of West Pokot and other stakeholders to increase forest cover.
The group had earlier visited the parents of one of their members, Eva Loyatum where they surprised them with early Christmas gifts.
