Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has come out to clarify what he meant by ‘allowing farmers to farm in forests’ what is popularly being referred to as Shamba System.
Speaking during the 2022 Nairobi International Trade Fair on Wednesday Gachagua said that he did not mean that farmers will cultivate in forests while blaming journalists for misreporting him.
According to him, he meant that farmers will help the government in the serious afforestation programme that it is set to launch.
“We want to tell the press, that the campaign is over, report us objectively. When I was in Baringo I announced that we have a serious programme on afforestation. There is a lot of land within the forest reserve that has been earmarked for tree planting and we are going to mobilize farmers in the old spirit to assist us to plant new trees in those areas that have no trees and take care of them as they farm until the trees are of age. So when you twist it that we have said we are going to bring the farmers to come and farm in the forest that is in bad taste,” Gachagua said.
The Deputy President made the remarks about allowing farmers in forests last weekend during the burial of Baringo Deputy Governor Charles Kipng’ok, who died while at JKIA shortly before he was to fly to Mombasa for the governors’ induction.
Gachagua said that an order had been issued for citizens to cultivate in forests.
“There was a Shamba System where locals could plant maize until the trees grow. This government is yours, we have made an order for Wananchi to be given an opportunity to cultivate in the forest so that we can increase food production. This is your government, we have issued an order for citizens to be allowed to cultivate crops,” Gachagua said.
The remarks widely attracted criticism from environment stakeholders, opposition leaders as well as Kenyans in general.
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