• There are currently 60 prison stations with tree nurseries, the main nursery is in Ruiru
Image: FILE
The Kenya Prisons Service is in a race against time to help President Uhuru Kenyatta meet his agenda for 10 per cent forest cover by 2022.
The project targeted 10 million seedlings and has achieved the target by 40 per cent, seedlings which have been released for planting.
The KPS involved the NYS, which brought machinery (tractors, excavators) while Prisons provided the land and labour.
There are currently 60 prison stations with tree nurseries, but the main tree nursery is at Ruiru prison. The greening Kenya project is largely used as a rehabilitation programme and training tool for prisoners.
Of the four million seedlings raised last year, about 1.7 million were planted within prisons land, while 2.3 million were taken up by external institutions, led by Kenya Forest Service.
KPS and KFS have a standing agreement to provide the latter with 1.6 million seedlings this year. At least 540,000 have been provided so far.
The service has a project at Mua Hills under the patronage of Planning PS Julius Muia, where it has planted 200,000 seedlings.
KPS has also adopted 100 hectares of Marmanet South forest, where it has planted 262,000 seedlings. An additional 42,000 is ready for planting now.
At the moment, Ruiru prison is raising 2.2 million seedlings in the Greening Kenya initiative funded by a donation from Central Bank of Kenya.
The service has provided schools in Kiambu with more than 100,000 seedlings, where some are taken by organisations that plant them in schools.
To bolster the coverage, all prisons are required to have three rows of trees around their perimeter walls to save the parcels from encroachment.
Prison stations are also required to set aside 10 per cent of their land for woodlots, which are intended to provide fuel for use in the facilities.
There is also a component of fruit trees, where the service is producing 100,000 seedlings of grafted Hass avocado at Nyamira prison.
At least 64,000 seedlings which were ready for planting were distributed to farmers in Nyamira on Thursday.
Farms enterprise manager Patrick Kariri said the bid is to encourage farmers to start avocado farming and in the end help achieve the 10 per cent cover.
“We are encouraging that a lot. We are now part of 2 billion tree seedlings by the Environment ministry, for which we are a key partner,” he said.
There are two prices for trees, depending on the size. Smaller seedlings are sold at Sh12 for exotic and Sh15 for indigenous trees.
Edited by T Jalio