Religious Leaders key to Environmental Restoration-CS TOBIKO

Environment and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko has said religious leaders hold a critical position to implore upon their faithful to dedicate time for environmental restoration.

He said Kenyans should consider environment matters more seriously since it was the key to their food production, sound health, and economic well being among other numerous benefits.

1. Tobiko noted that environmental benefits were enormous for the country and it was imperative for religious leaders to carry the message of ecological restoration to their faithful who comprise more than 90% of the country’s population.

The CS lamented that the country was currently facing acute environmental conditions including degraded landscapes, destroyed forests, intense air pollution, contaminated rivers and wondered why religious leaders failed to challenge their faithful to take action to reverse the risky trend.

“Rivers are drying up, floods destroy our landscapes, cases of respiratory diseases are rising due to air pollution and the religious leaders are not speaking” the CS said.

Mr. Tobiko was speaking during a tour of Machakos and Makueni counties where he participated in the ongoing National tree planting campaign and at the same time supervised the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination at various centers.

He blamed the destruction of the country’s waters towers and the low level of forest cover to some greedy people whose selfish drive should not be allowed to annihilate the source of livelihood for many Kenyans.

The CS further warned against politicizing and tribalizing the Government’s efforts to evict settlers who illegally occupied critical water towers. This he added was a bid to achieve the country’s target of 10% tree cover by 2022.

The CS led the planting of 3,000 tree seedlings in Machakos technical training Institute while  then senior deputy conservator of forests Esau Omolo led the planting of 3,000 seedlings in Ndukuma dam in Makueni county.

He later toured Kwambila community dam in Kathonzweni, makueni county where he urged residents to conserve the water facility by planting bamboo and other suitable plants.

He was accompanied by Makueni County Commissioner Mohammed Maalim and the County Executive committee member Joshua Wambua, among other leaders.