Environment CS Keriako Tobiko will Friday lead other government officials to launch tree-planting in the Maasai Mau Forest.
Rift Valley regional coordinator George Natembeya on Thursday said they would start with 100,000 seedlings in the Sierra Leone area, where illegal settlers have moved out.
“After this tree-planting exercise, we will move to other areas where the destruction was massive and make sure we plant more than 10 million trees, especially when we have enough rainfall to sustain the seedlings,” Natembeya told the Star on the phone.
He said the state wants to restore the degraded Mau Forest, which is one of water catchment areas in the country.
“We have started rehabilitation and we will not allow anybody back in the forest to continue with the destruction,” he said.
On Tuesday, Kenya Forest Service Chief Conservator Julius Kamau conducted aerial surveillance and ground inspection of Loliondo and Sierra Leone in Maasai Mau Forest to assess the ongoing preparations ahead of the tree-planting.
Kamau said the site preparation was underway and the delivery of the indigenous tree seedlings meant for conservation purposes was ongoing as expected.
He commended the local community for their support in site preparations.
The KFS boss urged the public to join hands in an effort to conserve the water tower to its former glory as the largest forest in East and Central Africa, which is the source of 12 major rivers that form the water catchment for among others Lake Victoria and Lake Natron.
In a statement on October 26, Tobiko said as part of the reclamation and restoration of the Maasai Mau Forest, the government has decided to undertake an immediate restoration programme aimed at planting 10 million trees within the area recently reclaimed.
The CS invited members of the public, institutions, corporates and partners to donate seedlings and participate in tree-planting activities.
Early this month, the government launched a national drive to plant more than 50 million seedlings during the ongoing short rains.
Tobiko said the move is one of the ways in which forest cover will increase to at least 10 percent by 2022.
The national forest cover stands at 7.2 percent. At least Sh48 billion is needed for a campaign to enable the country to plant at least 1.8billion trees between now and 2022.
