• Each member expected to get Sh200,000 after selling the seedlings.
• Baya appeals to the government and other organisations to buy the seedlings so they can be able to pay fees once schools reopen.
Women groups in Mida Creek, Kilifi county, are calling on the government and conservation organisations to buy over 200,000 mangrove seedling that are ready for transplanting.
They have threatened to quit conservation work if no one buys the seedlings worth Sh10 million. Each seedling retails at Sh50.
The 50 women, who belong to three groups - Bidii na Kazi, Jitahidi, Mida fishing -, invested in mangrove nurseries in March with the hope of making good returns. But the pandemic broke out and no one is buying the seedlings.
Journalists visited Mida Creek on Friday and found the women wondering what to do with the seedlings.
Sidi Baya, a member of Bidii na Kazi, said they expected each member would get Sh200,000 after selling the seedlings.
"We started planting at a time when the coronavirus was reported in Kenya. We encountered a lot of problems, but we had to soldier on ," she said.
Baya said each week members devoted two days at the nursery.
She appealed to the government and other organisations to buy the seedlings so they can be able to pay fees once schools reopen.
Arafa Salim, the patron of the women's groups, said, "We received support from Kefri and RFTD, but now we are worried because no one can conserve the environment on an empty stomach."
Salim urged Environment CS Keriako Tobiko to intervene and support them. "We invite the CS as women from Mida Creek and see what we are doing," she said.
Salim said if they fail to get someone to buy the seedlings, they might be demoralised and quit conservation work.
Suleiman Bakari, a village elder from Mida, said soon the community may no longer be involved in conservation work and the destruction of mangroves will increase.
