The government has intensified conservation efforts in Mukogodo Forest, one of the indigenous forests that is under protection of the local community in Laikipia County.
The conservation initiative, done in collaboration with various government ministries and agencies, targets planting more than 100,000 trees in the expansive forest.
Mukogodo Forest, which stretches for an estimated 17,000 acres is home to Yiaku, a minority hunters and gatherers community that has occupied it for decades, conserving it using a traditional governance system while deriving the benefits including collecting honey and medicinal plants and conducting traditional rituals.
Director of Administration, State Department of Wildlife, Vincent Ongere, who represented the Principal Secretary for Wildlife, Silvia Museiya, during a tree-planting exercise in Mukogodo, said that the initiative was geared towards planting 15 billion trees by 2032 in the country.
“This is a presidential directive that we should achieve a target of 15 billion trees by 2032; at the same time, we have a direct interest in tree planting since this is a wild animal habitat,” said the director.
Ongere highlighted that tree planting helped to control climate change while at the same time heaping praises on the Yaiku community for their conservation efforts of the forest. During the exercise, 5,000 trees were planted.
Laikipia North Member of Parliament Sarah Korere said that there was continued awareness creation of the residents on the need to conserve the forest, however she commended the Yaiku community for being on the front line to protect Mukogodo Forest.
The legislator noted that communities around the forest needed to be equipped with knowledge on how to use modern technology in their conservation efforts aimed at combating climate change.
Laikipia County Commissioner Onesmus Kyatha said Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has already constituted a special security force to flush out the criminals.
“We have had challenges with bandits in this forest who come from the neighboring counties of Isiolo and Samburu. They have been terrorizing residents through livestock theft; however, the government is going to wipe them out with the help of the locals,” said Kyatha.
At the height of the 2022 drought, pastoralists from the neighbouring Isiolo and Samburu counties, some of them armed with illegal firearms drove their livestock into the forest, leading to massive destruction of indigenous trees and causing insecurity within Mukogodo East Ward.
In the last few years, several people from villages neighbouring the forest have been shot dead, business premises looted by armed criminals and herds of livestock stolen. At times, schools have been closed as teachers fearful of their lives keep off the area.
The government has however given a formal pledge to restore the serenity of the forest through a coordinated security operation to weed out the bandits and a tree-planting campaign.
By Muturi Mwangi
