Roselinda Soipan Tuya, Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Forestry, has announced that the government will now introduce a certificate that will be placed at a value of credentials required in applying for jobs in the country.
Tuya revealed at the Kusi Ideas Festival in the Karura Forest that the government plans to launch a large-scale initiative to green the country through the use of renewable resources.
“We will ask Kenyans to do their bit, plant 300 trees within the ten-year period and even have an opportunity to award Kenyans with a certificate of Green Conduct,” Tuya said.
Tuya cited President William Ruto’s speech at the event and pledged that five billion trees would be planted in the next five years, followed by another ten billion by 2032, in an effort to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change in Kenya.
President Ruto gave the go-ahead in October to implement a long-term, sustainable solution that includes greening the country to more than 30% tree cover by 2032.
According to Ruto, forests cover only 5.2 hectares of Kenya’s 59.2 million hectares of land.
He claimed that because of forests’ unparalleled ability to absorb, store, and regulate carbon, it is more important than ever to address the effects of climate change.
He urged the Council of Governors to facilitate more discussions in order to achieve parity in tree cover across counties by utilizing peer-to-peer learning and information exchange.
On Tuesday, the Cabinet decided that all public events presided over by the President, Deputy President, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and all other cadres of State or Public Officers must have a minimum of 200 to 500 tree seedlings planted.
