President William Ruto's goal of planting 15 billion trees in a span of 10 years has been questioned after residents and experts noticed flaws in the whole exercise.
The Head of State had set aside November 13 last year as a national holiday for planting trees to achieve a markup of 150 million tree seedlings in the ground.
Less than four months later, however, several counties reported that some of the seedlings had dried up, therefore affecting the trajectory of the project.
In an interview with Citizen TV on Sunday, Doctor Kalua Green, the Chief Steward of the Green Africa Group, cast his doubts on the effectiveness of the strategy employed by the government.
He argued that the State had not engaged with the community therefore making it impossible for individuals to take care of the trees planted.
"We started on a wrong footing on matters of environmental conservation when we talk about trees particularly. So numbers are quickly made up to show that you are doing something yet you are not connecting with the communities," he observed.
"Have you ever seen a tree planting day? We have been talking about it and some of the excesses have been reduced but you go back to the allowances that have been given back to the people to go to that site, the amount of money given is a lot yet people are on duty."
Kalua further questioned the mode of transport the leaders used on the tree planting day that included choppers and fuel guzzlers whose emissions were harmful to the environment.
"The number of cars and the emissions they are making getting out there. The communities are only bought food for that one day then you disappear and then you wonder whether it is commensurate to this," he added.
In areas like Kapenguria, workers revealed that the drought had affected the project leading to the drying up of numerous trees under the project.
Samwel Pkukat, a resident, as a result, appealed to the State to support their efforts to accessing water to irrigate the plants.
"Due to the current drought, many trees dried up and only a few survived. We planted trees but due to drought, the government has to make plans to help us citizens and finance our efforts of getting water to irrigate the trees," he stated.
Elsewhere in Nyanza, where water is not a problem, individuals hired to tender to the trees abandoned the roles arguing that delay in payments had affected the project.
The trees are, therefore, muzzled by weeds hence affecting their outcome.
During the tree-planting holiday, the Head of State had set aside over 500 million seedlings that were planted across the country.
The exercise was part of the of the Kenya's Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration-Towards the growing of 15 billion trees.
