President William Ruto on Monday led Kenyans in planting trees, after Interior CS Kithure Kindiki gazetted the day a special holiday for the tree planting purposes.
Ruto engaged in the activity in Kiu, Makueni county as other Cabinet Secretaries and government officials participated in the same in different places across the country.
The head of state was in the company of his wife Rachel Ruto, DP Rigathi Gachagua and his wife Dorcas among other leaders.
Kindiki was in Garissa while Trade CS Moses Kuria was in Nandi County, just but to mention a few.
“Natural resources, particularly forests, play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance, enhancing biodiversity and sustaining the livelihoods of people and communities across our country,” President Ruto shared on Twitter.
In Kiu, Makeuni County, during the #NationalTreePlantingDay. pic.twitter.com/T8vGDHYxlY
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) November 13, 2023
The aim of the Tree Planting Day was to encourage Kenyans to participate in climate change mitigation activities such as tree planting.
The holiday will however not be marked every year according to Kikuyu MP, who is also the National Assembly majority leader, Kimani Ichungwa.
“The public holiday today is not a public holiday every other year. It is only this year that it was gazetted as a way of educating Kenyans and providing civic education of encouraging Kenyans to participate in climate change mitigation measures including the planting of tree. Therefore it will not be a holiday every year but I want to request Kenyans to make use every other day that they have time and space to plant a tree, let everyday in Kenya be a tree planting day,” Ichungwa said.
Ichungwa was speaking at Ondiri Wetlands in Kiambu County.
