At least 100,000 seedlings were planted in Embu County during the tree-planting holiday on Monday.
6,000 trees were planted in the Maranga forest in Runyenjes which held the main tree planting event.
Other tree planting points were Irangi forest in Embu East, Magaca in Embu North, and Kiang'ombe and Kianjiru in Mbeere North and South respectively.
The exercise was led by the Industrialization PS Dr Juma Mukhwana, Embu County Governor Cecily Mbarire, deputy governor Kinyua Mugo, Njoki Njeru (Woman Rep), Muchangi Karemba MP Runyenjes, Speaker Embu County Assembly Josiah Thiriku among other county officials.
PS Juma Mukhwana who was the chief guest urged the leaders to embrace tree planting for sustainability.
He said the leaders should ignore challenges and plant trees to ensure the Maranga forest is intact.
"Within those targets, your leaders should ensure they also include tree planting targets. Tree planting should be among the key issues to offering our areas agricultural and environmental boost," said Dr Mukhwana.
He further applauded the county leaders who he said passionately planted trees and expressed unity.
"I congratulate the Embu County leaders for your unity which is different from other countries," he said.
Embu County governor Cecily Mbarire on her side insisted that the leaders will ensure they carry on with the act to boost the target of 15 billion trees by 2032.
She said the 15 billion trees target can easily be achieved if everyone unites in planting trees.
Mbarire who planted over 100 trees during the event urged the residents to hold hands in ensuring they conserve the Kagaari South Ward-based forest.
"The forest has deteriorated due to human activities that people used to launch thus destroying the then-rich forest," she said.
Mbarire said everyone should play an important role in ensuring we don't face hunger due to lack of water which is mainly influenced by the availability of enough tree cover.
She quoted the late Wangari Mathai who fought hard for environmental justice and warned residents against misusing Mother Nature.
"Many people thought Wangari Mathai was insane when she said 'If you destroy Mother Nature she will destroy you someday'. That's what we witnessed through experiencing hunger sometime last year, let's take care of our environment," Mbarire said.
Mbarire urged residents to play roles of conservation and restoration of nature to avoid facing hunger in future due to the lack of enough water and depressed levels of rivers.
Runyenjes Constituency member of Parliament Muchangi Karemba urged the president to initiate more events that will embrace tree planting to restore the perfect tree cover.
He said the president should launch a tree-planting strategy that will be carried out every rainy season.
"I want to request the President to declare such holidays every rainy season to plant more and more trees to fully restore our forests and erase the negative climate change impact.
Cabinet Secretaries and PSs led tree-planting exercises in various parts of the country.
