Akurinu church to celebrate 100 years by planting 1million trees

**CS Keriako Tobiko and Sicily Kariuki join Akurinu faithful for a service at Nairobi Arboretum yesterday.** [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

The Akurinu church has started a tree planting initiative that will see its faithful plant one million indigenous trees by June as they mark their 100 years.

Prince Macharia, the secretary-general of General Conference of Akorino Churches Assembly (Gecaga), said the tree planting initiative was meant to support President Uhuru Kenyatta’s commitment to plant two million trees by 2022 and also help the government reach the 10 per cent tree cover by 2022.

“As Akurinu faithful, we shall support President Kenyatta in achieving this target by planting half of the two million trees.

“We will start with 20 counties first due to the few days we have before we converge at Kasarani in June to celebrate 100 years and have a national prayer day,” said Macharia, during the launch of the initiative at Nairobi Arboretum yesterday.

Equity Bank has pledged to give 200,000 seedlings while Kenya Forest Service (KFS) will donate 100,000 .

Julius Kamau, the KFS Chief Conservator of Forests, applauded the church for the initiative and challenged other faiths to imitate them.

“I also challenge the Cabinet Secretary for Environment Keriako Tobiko to come up with a policy to ensure that those organisations that plant trees, also ensure that they are nurtured for up to two or three years and then handover them to KFS to manage,” Kamau said.

He encouraged Kenyans to take advantage of coming long rains to plant more trees.

Responding to Kamau’s challenge, the CS said a policy document is being developed.

Speaking at the same event, Water Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki asked the church to pray for President Kenyatta and support Building Bridges Initiative because it will bring peace and development to the country.