The Green Initiative Challenge equips young learners with conservation skills.
The move comes against the back drop of a changing climate.
The initiative is designed in a manner that schools which are in dry areas employ innovative measures to ensure that the seedlings they are provided with survives.
Winning an award depends mainly on the survival rates that seedlings have.
This means that the initiative must get the maximum support and acceptance from parents, teachers, pupils, board of management and other stakeholders.
The best schools benefit from scholarships, infrastructural developments, water tanks and cash rewards among others.
Implemented by Kengen Foundation, Better Globe Forestry and Bamburi Cement, GIC is a 10 year program that targets to enroll 1,000 schools and greening a total of 460 acres with 324,300 tree seedlings as well as 113,956 fruit seedlings (passion and pawpaw).
The programme also includes 4-8 capacity building sessions per year for all participating schools and 2 Monitoring and Evaluation sessions per year.
The first phase started in 2013 involving 81 schools near the seven folks power stations in Embu and Machakos counties.
Each school is provided with 150 trees for economic use and 50 wood trees for fuel.
They also planted multipurpose Cassia siamea (Muveshi) and Melia volkensii (Mukau) seedlings in their school plots.
Better Globe Forestry, a private afforestation company, provided Melia volkensii seedlings while Kengen Foundation provided seedlings for other varieties.
Thua, Mashamba, Tulimyumbu and Ngoce Primary Schools were recognized as the top four schools that excelled in Phase II of the Green Initiative Challenge schools greening programme.
Thua Primary School, Kitui County, emerged top with a score of 84 percent while Mashamba Primary School came second, scoring 77 percent.
At position three was Tulimyumbu Primary School in Machakos County with a score of 75 percent.
Ngoce Primary School, from Embu County was recognized in fourth position, scoring 69 percent.
Mashamba primary school in Embu was position two, taking a cheque of Sh 40,000.
Thirty pupils accompanied by two teachers are set to visit Hells gate national park,Olkaria geothermal plant and spend a night at Olkaria spa.
One pupil is set to get full secondary scholarship.
The school is also set to get 16,000 liters water tank with infrastructure worth Sh 1.5 million.
Head teacher pocketed Sh 7,000 while the green teacher gets cash award of Sh 8,000 among other benefits.
Tulimyumbu primary, Masinga constituency in Machakos was third position scooping a cheque of Sh 30,000 and water tank with a capacity of 10,000 liters.
Thirty students are set to visit Gitaru power station and Kamburu staff camp among other benefits.
GIC is a programme that targets schools around the 7-Forks power stations in Embu, Kitui and Machakos counties, to raise environmental awareness and create an involvement of schools and students in improving their environment through a participatory and rewarding initiative.
Since inception in 2013, Sh 10 million has been spend on the program.
The Phase II Awards are a culmination of activities that began in 2015, with the enrolment of 120 schools from the three counties.
During the Award Ceremony, the partners also announced the launch of GIC Phase IV, which brings on board 100 schools from Kitui, Machakos and Embu Counties.
This addition brings to 400 the number of schools participating in the project since its launch in 2015.
As part of the Phase IV activities, 100 “Green Teachers” and 100 Headmasters from the 100 recruited schools underwent a capacity building training on managing and nurturing their woodlots in various centres across the three counties.