New Water Towers Agency Board to Restore Mau.

CS Keriako Tobiko giving his key note adress during the Inauguration of the KWTA Board.

Environment and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko has directed the Kenya Water Agency (KWTA) to move immediately into Mau Forest and oversee its protection and rehabilitation.

The CS said the Conservation Agency would lead the Country in turning around the multiple Environmental problems the country was facing, including water shortages, reforestations, rising temperatures and food shortages.

He noted that it was the height of retrogression for a country to destroy its environment and forests under the pretext of industrial development.

Tobiko was speaking today when he inaugurated the new board of the Kenya Water Towers Agency, chaired by Dr. Julius Malombe.

CS Keriako Tobiko is received by the Chairman of the Kenya Water Towers Agency Hon. Dr Julius Malombe at his office

The CS emphasized the critical role of the Agency in resuscitating the countries water sources, adding that his ministry was working to ensure the organization was anchored in legislation.

He said, for Mau forest to remain an important water tower, the illegal occupants had to leave without compensation.

He cautioned communities living within the precincts of the invaded water tower against politicizing environmental restoration as it was the source of livelihoods for thousands of people within the Mara ecosystem that extended from Kenya to Tanzania.

CS Tobiko said the Cabinet had approved the National Strategy to increase the tree cover from the current 7.2% to 10% in 2022, adding that the task was enormous requiring more than 1.8 Billion tree seedlings.

CS Keriako Tobiko poses for a group photo with the newly inaugurated kenya water towers board.

The CS appealed to KWTA to be innovative in mobilizing resources from the current Kshs 100 million allocation from the Government, to restore various water towers in the country.

The new board comprising 11 members was appointed on 3rd May this year and includes the chairman, Prof. Julius Tanui the Ag. Director General, Ms. Wambui Muriithi, Robert Mutuma, Peter Leitoro, Esther Wang’ombe, Edna Atisa, Timothy Naeku, Hibo Bishal, Sandia Maina and Bernard Mulwa.