In a gazzette notice dated 6th November 2023, Kindiki declared that 13th November will be a public holiday where the public shall be involved in tree planting allover the nation.
“In Exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Public Holidays Act, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration declares Monday, November 13 2023, a public holiday in which the public shall be engaged in tree growing countrywide,” the gazette notice read.
He said that the president, William Samoei Ruto, will lead the tree planting exercise in an attempt to reach the ambition of fifteen billion trees by the year 2032.
“The exercise is part of Kenya’s Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Program Towards the Growing of Fifteen (15) billion trees. There will be a designated National venue for the tree planting presided over by His Excellency (Dr.) William Samoei Ruto,” the notice adds.
Cabinet secretaries and county bosses will also be presiding the activity in all the counties where the public at large is expected to comply with and make it a success.
The cabinet on November 3rd sat and agreed to set aside one official day of work for tree planting in order to curb the effects of climate change and in compliance with the 15 billion tree pledge.
“This aligns with the Government’s National Tree Planting Campaign under the Presidential Programme for the Accelerated Restoration of Forests and Rangelands,” a statement from Cabinet read.
Every cabinet secretary is assigned to adopt two counties atleast and preside over the process, according to the cabinet’s agreement.
President Ruto has continuously urged Kenyans to support his agenda of planting 15 billion trees by 2032 where he stated that his administration will ensure the agenda is fully implemented.
He promised to increase the forest cover of Kenya which now stands at 8.83 percent up from 5.9 percent of 2018, according to the National Forest Resources Assessment (NFRA) Report 2021.
The government is in much support of this since it plans to distribute tree seedlings through chiefs to accelerate tree growing activities across the country. It has also set a national target of planting 500 million trees across the country by December 25.
Soipan Tuya backed up the plan by saying that it can only be achieved through the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Programme (NLERP) aimed at realising 15 billion trees by 2032.
“We are hoping that the short rains will come in a consistent version as we go towards realising this target,” Tuya said in a press briefing.
This comes after the King congratulated the president for the undying efforts to plant trees and solve the climate change in the nation.
“Having been planting trees for most of my life, I thought I was doing rather well, but your ambition for planting 15 billion trees makes me admire your efforts,” he said.