The road leading to Mashamba Primary School, Embu County, can best be described as a cattle track. The surrounding environment appears barren, devoid of any vegetation.

Under the scorching sun, sparsely scattered lone trees, stripped off their greenery, and covered with the area’s red soil, paint a picture of desperation. Cattle and donkeys with empty containers on their backs lead their masters in search of water.

But Mashamba Primary School is different. The school’s compound is in stuck contrast with the surrounding environment.

Boasting of a healthy 0.5 acre woodlot, the school was also the location of the launch of Phase IV of the Schools’ Green Initiative Challenge (GIC) on 28 February.

100 new schools joined the tree planting competition, KenGen Foundation’s flagship environment project, during the colorful event that also saw winners of Phase II of the GIC awarded prizes after two years of intense tree growing, despite the harsh climatic conditions.

READ MORE: KenGen Scoops Best Corporate (State Agency) Tree Growing And Forest Conservation Award

Speaking during the event, out going KenGen Foundation Managing Trustee Mike Njeru welcomed the new schools to the afforestation project, and lauded the winners of Phase II while encouraging them “to continue with the innovative measures you [sic] adopted over the last three years to maintain the beautiful woodlots that you now have”.

Thua Primary School led the pack of 120 school involved in Phase II of the competition to emerge the winner with a score of 84%, while the host, Mashamba Primary School, followed with a score of 77%. Tulimyumbu Primary School, from Machakos County clinched the third position with a mean score of 75%.

The KenGen Foundation, in partnership with the champion of dry land forestry Better Globe Forestry, and leader of habitat restoration Bamburi Cement Ltd., implements the tree planting competition within targeted schools at the semi-arid counties of Embu, Kitui, and Machakos.

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Designed as a challenge due to the harsh climatic conditions, schools are awarded point for the seedlings survival rates at the end of a two-year period. Other factors include innovations such as individual tree adoptions by students and teachers; mulching; fencing; and drip irrigation among others.

Present at the event was KenGen’s Operation’s Director Eng. Solomon Kariuki who reiterated the Company’s continued investment “in long-term sustainable environmental conservation programs with GIC targeting schools and their surrounding communities”.

“It is worth to note that this unique program encourages environmental consciousness and conservation awareness among school children right from an early age to encourage and sustain their enthusiasm in caring for their environment as they grow to adulthood”, he added.

Since inception in 2015 with an initial 81 schools from Embu and Machakos, the GIC has grown to involve more than 300 schools inclusive of Kitui County. The afforestation project targets the greening of over 500 acres of semi-arid land as a way of mitigating climate change and providing wood fuel and alternative income opportunities for the local communities.

Susan Maingi, Bamburi Cement Ltd. Director, Corporate Affairs, Communications & Sustainable Development said “Bamburi is proud to be playing its role in environmental conservation and restoration, and mitigating the impacts of climate change through the GIC partnership”.

“As we launch Phase IV today, we remain committed to working with the communities through such collaborations with like-minded organizations, to jointly reverse the climate change effects in arid and semi-arid Areas in Kenya”, she added.

Jan Vandenabeele, Executive Director Better Globe Forestry said: “We wish to encourage all those involved in the GIC to adapt their individual successes at their homesteads, as environmental conservation requires our collective efforts. We are proud of the winners and welcome the new schools into this noble initiative”.

The Schools Green Initiative Challenge incorporates three of the 17 recently unveiled UN Sustainable Development Goals namely Quality Education, Climate Change, Clean Water & Sanitation. Best performing schools stand a chance of winning education trips, scholarships, water tanks, infrastructure development, cash prizes among others.

Speaking during the event, KenGen’s Director Dr. Musa Arusei noted that it was “commendable that thousands of school going children are learning valuable skills of planting and nurturing trees, which they will spread to their homes and communities”.

“It is with this in mind that the company continues to invest in long-term social investment programs such as the GIC, which is dedicated to environmental conservation by promoting a tree planting culture with particular emphasis to the school children, who are indeed the best transformational agents for a better environment”, he added.

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Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta recognized KenGen as the Best Corporate category during the inaugural Tree Growing and Forest Conservation Awards 2017, with the GIC project contributing enormously to this award.

The GIC is set to expand to other counties where KenGen has operations, with tree planting activities planned for Western Hydros, Olkaria, Mombasa and Turkana Counties.

Currently, tree seedlings are being distributed to the new schools in order to take advantage of the ongoing rains.

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–Ernest Nyamasyo, Communication Officer