To mark this year’s Ushirika Day celebrations, the local Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) have embarked on a tree planting initiatives as part of their corporate social responsibility to preserve the ever-fragile environment.
The initiative comes ahead of the annual celebrations to be marked on 12th July in Nairobi, under the theme “Driving Inclusive and Sustainable Solutions for a Better World.”
Members of the SACCOs in the capital came out in large numbers over the weekend to plant trees as one of a series of activities the cooperative movement has lined up before the commemoration of the day.
This year’s Ushirika is also special after UN General Assembly adopted a resolution last year proclaiming that the year 2025 will be the International Year of Cooperatives.
Speaking during a tree-planting exercise at Nairobi’s Jamhuri Park, Ms Priscilla Maranga, representing the Cooperative Commissioners Office, said the cooperative principal number seven which is concern for the community, emphasizes that the societies should work for the sustainable development of their community at large.
“We demonstrate that by planting trees, we take care of the environment not just for ourselves but also for generations to come. We should plant the trees with a lot of love, and in future we will see the impact that the cooperative movement has had on the environment,” she said.
Director of Cooperatives, Nairobi County, Delphine Aremo challenged the young people to plant trees when they are young, saying: “If one plants trees when they are old, they will not get any shade.”
Vincent Marangu, Director of the Co-operatives Banking Division said the work being done by the cooperators of planting trees will not go in vain, as every tree planted contributes in carbon reduction and a sustainable environment.
“With many years to come, just like the generation that came before us endowed to us a clean universe, we should focus in passing the same to our future generations,”Marangu said
Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) representative Florence Nasila termed the tree-planting event a noble cause to contribute to the building of nature, adding: “We will be counted by the future generations for our contribution to the preservation of nature by planting trees. Green is life; we are sowing a seed of life that will be speaking to generations that will come after us,” Nasila stressed.
The initiative by the cooperative movement comes after Kenya ratified a policy to increase forest cover in the country with a target of planting at least 15 billion trees by 2032.
By Wangari Ndirangu
