KVDA Donates 1.5 Million Tree Seedlings To Schools In West Pokot County

By Benson Aswani,

Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) board Chairman Mark Chesergon has called upon the residents of West Pokot County to embrace tree planting activity to achieve a target of 15 billion trees in ten years.

Speaking during the launch of seedling distribution at Nasokol primary school, Mr. Chesergon said this will help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change brought about by human activities such as deforestation and poor farming activities.

He encouraged the residents to help in restoring the Country’s forest cover noting that activities such as deforestation have affected many forests in the country.

“There is rampant degradation of forests through burning of charcoal in the Kerio valley, but as an authority, we discourage this and prefer we go the best alternative way of planting trees and conserving them,” said Mr. Chesergon.

His statements were echoed by the KVDA managing director Sammy Naporos, who said that aside from mitigating the effects of climate change, tree planting will also improve livelihood.

“This will go a long way in mitigating the effects of climate change and improving livelihood because we are also farmers from this particular region who rely on trees purposely for timber and firewood,” said Mr. Naporos.

On her side, Nasokol primary school head teacher Cecilia Ngige encouraged the schools that will benefit to ensure that the seedlings are grown and well taken care of to achieve the desired goals.

“I want to ask the leadership of all schools to make sure that they take good care of the seedlings to make sure that we achieve the target,” she said.

The authority donated 1.5 million tree seedlings for the exercise targeting schools.