Five years ago, a group of 15 youths came together to restore the receding forest cover of Kitui.
The initiative is at Katyethoka village in the outskirts of Kitui town.
“The aim is to mitigate the vagaries of climate change and ultimately help to conserve the environment. All this is towards making our planet Earth more hospitable,” Mark Musyoka said.
Musyoka is in charge of the Kitui-based Green Care Tree Nursery project.
He told the Star on January 26 the idea of setting up a tree nursery was borne out of the passion for environmental conservation.
“As youths we had to do something to help stop the adverse impact of climate change. We wanted to have people plant and grow more trees,” Musyoka said.
“We were determined to grow big but we had to start small. We started with propagating 500 acacia tree seedlings which also included two indigenous tree species.
“Currently we have more than 50,000 tree seedlings. We have actually integrated various tree species according to the purpose, use and value of trees species.”
Musyoka admits that it was not easy to set up the Green Care Tree Nursery without any seed money.
The 28-year-old said during its early days members had to literally gather and collect tree seedlings and aggregate them at the nursery site.
“We have been able to make real money here. There are times we even make seedlings sales of more than a million shillings per season,” he said as he showed the Star around the Katyethoka village tree nursery site.
Musyoka who was in the company of his co-founder, Dorcas Mumbe, who was last December recognised by SNV Craft NGO as a climate change champion, said that although the project had started bringing in money, the overall objective was to enhance environmental conservation.
“The criterion for anyone to become a member is for one to be a young person and be driven by a passion to grow trees and conserve the environment. We are a people ready to soil our hands to conserve the planet Earth where we live,” he said.
Musyoks further said the tree growing initiative was essentially a passion.
“We are in it because we like green spaces. We like seeing green. We envisage to transform every part of this county and our country to green. We want youth in Kitui to be involved in matters conservation, agro forestry and agribusiness,” he said.
Musyoka said the youth group has been working with community self-help groups, NGOs and individual farmers who acquire seedlings from the project.
He, however, added that the group had partnered with environment clubs in 10 local schools in a bid to introduce climate lessons in schools.
“We particularly want to change the attitude of the learners toward the issues of agro forestry, conservation and tree planting. We want to see them in the frontline of these activities to make our planet better for future generations,” Musyoka said.
He further said the partnership with the schools is meant to change the learners' view towards conservation.
“They tend to think that tree growing is for the poor in society and the less schooled. They think the educated should not soil their hands in tree planting and work at tree nurseries,” Musyoka said.
Musyoka said that most members of the group were highly trained professionals from across Kitui county.
“We are specifically targeting the learners because they are the future leaders, they are the future conservationist and they are the future parents. They are the future of our country,” he said.
He said the success of the project, so far, is not only borne of the support from SNV Craft but members have also benefited from capacity building trainings by the Kitui-based Kenya Forestry Research Centre.
The youth group official said that the Boreka Group Foundation has also been acquiring seedlings from the project to supply to farmers, thus contributing towards generating income.
Musyoka hopes the Kitui county government would also consider acquiring seedlings from his group as that would give it a big fiscal boost.
Governor Julius Malombe has announced a roll out programme to donate at least five tree seedlings to each family across the county every rainy season.
Kitui county has two rain seasons - the long and the short rains.
Mumbe said that the success of the tree seedlings initiative saw her crowned the climate change action champion.
“The group members have benefitted a great deal from this nursery. It is one of the nurseries which has had its members undergo capacity building sessions courtesy of SNV Craft,” she said.
Mumbe added that the project had empowered jobless young people who eke a living from it.
A young member of the group, Nicodemus Kiteme, said that the project helped him fully finance his diploma in mechanical engineering course at the Kabete Technical Institute.
“During vacations, I used to work at this tree nursery and I saved my daily earnings which I used to pay by college fees. But most importantly, I am in it because I would like to see our county become green. Green is beauty,” he said.
