- She painted the grim reality currently facing Kenya where an estimated 4.35 million people are on the verge of starvation.
- Waiguru called on the international community to support interventions counties are undertaking to counter climate change.
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The Council of Governors has given an impressive account of the initiatives counties are undertaking to mitigate climate change effects at the ongoing COP27 Summit in Egypt.
CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru said the devolved units are running a campaign to grow more than 10 million trees in cognisance of the immense contribution forest degradation adds to climate change.
“Key initiatives include afforestation and restoration activities in the urban green spaces along the roads and highways, public institutions such as schools, water catchment areas and hilltops,” Waiguru said.
She spoke Monday last week during a high-level discussion on the role of county governments in accelerating the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) through forestry and rangelands restoration at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The CoG boss noted that in keeping with their constitutional mandate of conserving water, soil and forests, 43 county governments have enacted Climate Change Acts.
Another 18 have enacted Forest Laws, 45 have established Climate Change Units while 30 counties have established subcounty climate change-planning committees in a bid to localise climate action.
“Eleven counties have undertaken participatory climate risk assessment in collaboration with community members and stakeholders. This clearly demonstrates the readiness and commitment of county governments towards the fulfilment of Kenya's commitments to restore 5.1 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes,” Waiguru said.
The latest data by the Kenya Forest Services (KFS) indicates that Kenya’s current tree cover is at 12.13 per cent and 8.83 per cent forest cover with most of the counties showing a significant increase in tree and forest cover.
Waiguru said to ensure budget allocation in county forest departments is prioritised, CoG with support from the UNDP REDD+ programme established a conducive policy and legal environment for tree growing and other forest management activities in counties by developing a model law (Policy and Bill) on sustainable forest management and tree growing.
She said in a bid to drive climate progress faster, county governments have so far allocated about three per cent of the development budget to support climate action.
But despite the above milestones, Waiguru called on the international community to support interventions counties are undertaking to counter climate change.
In her address on Thursday, Waiguru said priority areas include capacity building on access to green and blue financing (Green and Blue Bonds).
Others are the restoration of forests, wetlands, water catchment areas and rangelands and creation of women and youth-led green investments to improve livelihoods and create employment.
“Provide more concessional financing instruments and establish a financing facility for loss and damage and channel resources to support regions,” Waiguru said.
She painted the grim reality currently facing Kenya as a result of climate change where a worsening drought has ravaged 29 ASAL counties and pushed an estimated 4.35 million people on the verge of starvation.
The Kirinyaga governor said rising water levels in Lake Baringo, Lake Naivasha and Turkwel Dam has also disrupted proper ecosystem functioning leading to the displacement of people from their homes and business premises.
She said local interventions should be adopted to avert a much worse situation by facilitating peer-to-peer learning across counties through documentation of good practices and enhancing their adaptation.
Waiguru said there is also need to cascade climate information in a language understandable to all members of our communities and to integrate Youth, Women, PWDs and local communities in climate action.
“We recognise that climate change affects both men and women differently hence the need to prioritise the needs of the vulnerable within our society,” Waiguru said.
On the Special Presidential Forest and Rangeland Restoration Programme which seeks to plant five billion trees in five years, Waiguru said various critical issues must be addressed to achieve the ambitious goal.
They include strengthening the County Forest Departments through personnel and equipment and deployment of forest technical advisory personnel from KFS to work closely with county governments.
And last but not least is the establishment of tree nurseries in Wards and sustaining them to support quality seedling production.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)