Kenyans planted over 150 million trees on Monday - Gov't Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura

Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura says Kenyans across the country planted over 150 million trees during Monday’s National Tree Growing Day.

Addressing his first press briefing on Wednesday, Mwaura however noted that – of these – only slightly over 10 million trees have so far been recorded on the ‘Jaza Miti’ mobile application that helps keep track of the number of trees grown, as well as guide users on the tree species to grow in their respective areas.

Mwaura went ahead to note that the said number of trees planted on Monday, which was dubbed the ‘Green Holiday’, is still 350 million trees short of the government’s target for the short rains period.

“During these short rains, the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry targets to grow 500 million trees by the end of the season. The National Tree Growing Day provided a significant impetus of accelerating the number of seedlings planted,” he stated.

“The manual tallying as of November 14, 2023 shows that the country planted over 150 million trees. So far, a total of 10,794,604 trees have been documented in the Jaza Miti App.”

The tree growing day was in a bid to achieve President William Ruto's ambitious target of 1.5 billion trees in a year and 15 billion trees in the next 10 years.

It is part of a broader programme aimed at combating deforestation and increasing the country’s tree cover to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country.