By Winnie Kamau
Many residents in the Rural area of Kisumu city have not been connected to electricity yet the infrastructure is right at their doorstep. This lack of electricity has led to a lot of deforestation by the community citing insecurity.
During an interview with County Chief Officer Lona Obudho , she acknowledged that Kisumu was in an under grid situation “We are in a situation called under grid situation.When you go to the rural areas we are dark very dark in fact we are called transformer communities” adding that “The transformers are there but not useful to the rural areas”.
“People are afraid if you go to the ground people are not planting trees because of insecurity issues” explains Lona. She also adds that Kisumu County has only one gazetted forest with a population of almost one million residents.
Kenya’s forest cover according to Kenya Forest Service (KFS) stands at 2.5% compared to countries like Netherlands and Finland which are at 76%.
This has prompted the government in its vision 2030 to increase its forest cover to a mere 10% which is a minimum threshold for ecological sustainability. A step in the right direction you will say.
During the inception of Kenya’s water tower Protection and Climate change by Kenya Forest Research Institute (KeFRI) workshop held in Kisumu County I was shocked to hear the forest cover of our host County stands at 0.04%. This has forced the County government to create a special office of Green Energy and Climate Change ministry which is tasked with the mandate to ensure that they green the County by increasing the forest cover.
“We want to have activities on the ground which will impact on the communities” explains Paul Ongugo Science Leader at KeFRI during the workshop where over 50 scientists and researchers met to discuss on how to protect the endangered Cherangani and Mt. Elgon Water Towers.
The question begs what does one do with this level of misinformation and mindset that believes trees cause insecurity. I believe if the Late Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai would be upset if she heard this report. There is an urgent dire need to re afforest this County.
Dr. Paul Kigomo , Senior Deputy Director, KeFRI is optimistic about the launch of 31 Million Euro project sponsored by European Union (EU) to be undertaken in 10 counties in Kenya “We will be able to improve the degraded forests and add forests cover to different areas so that hydro peers are back and agricultural spillover impact of more water and the Lake Victoria will continue getting more fresh water”.
