CHEMELIL SUGAR PLANTS 3600 TREE SEEDLINGS IN CHEMELIL AND SOTIK AREAS DURING INAUGURAL NATIONAL TREE PLANTING DAY

BY BOSCO MAGARE, CHEMELIL SUGAR

Chemelil Sugar Company board director, management, and employees planted 3,600 tree seedlings of the whistling pine tree (botanical name Casuarina equisetifolia) within the Company Nucleus Estate and in Mutarakwo Division, Sotik during the inaugural National Tree Planting held across the country on November 13 this year.

In Chemelil, the tree planting exercise was held at a one-acre site within the Company’s Nucleus Estate. The event was carried out by a team of senior managers, employees, and contracted workers, including two scientists: Research Scientist (Agroforestry) Meshack Omuon, Technologist Joyce Oreta, and staff member Japheth Mwikoma from Kenya Forest Research Institute (Kefri) Maseno, led by the institute’s Deputy Regional Director Dr. Samson Okoth, who donated 500 tree seedlings. Speaking before the tree planting exercise commenced in Chemelil, the Company’s acting Head of Agriculture, Jorim Osewe, who represented the Company Interim Managing Director Jacqueline Kotonya, lauded the Government of Kenya (GoK) for declaring National Tree Planting Day a public holiday. This allows Kenyan citizens, Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies, including Chemelil Sugar Company, and corporate entities in the private sector to plant trees and support the Government's target of planting 15 billion trees by 2032.

Osewe urged the Company’s senior management team members and employees to support the Government of Kenya’s (GoK) agenda on environmental conservation.

“Let us support the Government’s agenda towards environmental conservation by embracing it and developing the culture of planting trees at our workstations, during management staff and employee individual ceremonies such as weddings and birthdays, or during any community activities,” Osewe urged.

The Company’s acting Head of Agriculture also thanked Kefri’s Maseno-based institute for donating 500 tree seedlings to Chemelil Sugar Company and for joining the Company’s senior management, employees, and contracted workers in the tree planting exercise within the Company’s Nucleus Estate.

Osewe lauded the existing environmental conservation program partnership between Chemelil Sugar Company and Kefri, launched on August 8 this year at the same one-acre Nucleus Estate site, during which Kefri also donated 500 assorted tree seedlings.

He assured the Kefri team that the Company will sensitize farmers engaged in cane development to embrace the culture of tree planting to conserve the environment. “As the Company’s Agriculture Department, which interacts with cane farmers, we are going to devise a sensitization program that involves our agriculture field officers, field supervisors, and field assistants to encourage sugarcane farmers to aggressively plant trees,” Osewe pledged.

During the tree planting exercise in Chemelil, Kefri Maseno-based Institute Deputy Regional Director Okoth equally lauded the Company’s environmental conservation program partnership, stating that “this program is here to stay and is not ending soon.”

Before embarking on the tree planting exercise, Okoth urged the Company’s senior management team members, a section of employees, and contracted workers to undertake the tree planting exercise passionately.

“In addition to planting trees within the designated Company Nucleus Estate site, let us also plant trees along the river boundaries. Think of planting trees in your homes and villages. Consider planting trees at places where you will retire so that in your retirement period, you have nice shelters to rest under,” Okoth urged.

The Kefri Deputy Regional Director also encouraged women to embrace the new culture of tree planting for environmental conservation, adding that “today, the Kefri team’s participation in this exercise will appropriately guide you on good tree planting techniques.”

Okoth appealed to Company management to take the tree planting exercise seriously and deploy employees and security personnel to care for and tend to the tree seedlings, adding that “this will motivate Kefri to continue donating tree seedlings to Chemelil Sugar Company.”

Senior CSCL Management staff who participated in the tree planting event included Moffat Omondi, Japheth Ojwang’, Stephen Aluoch, Bosco Magare, and Edward Owalo, among others.

In Sotik, Chemelil Sugar Company board director David Kitur, representing board directors, management, and employees, presented the Company’s donation of 600 tree seedlings through the Principal Secretary (PS) State Department of Agriculture Dr. Kipronoh Ronoh during the National Tree Planting Day held at two sites: Kaptulwa Secondary School and Mosop Mission School for orphans, both located within Chebole location in Mutarakwo division.

Kitur said that during the tree planting exercise in Sotik, led by the Sub-County Deputy County Commissioner Dennis Kieti, they planted 2,500 tree seedlings in Chebole location of Mutarakwo division. “We planted trees at the following two sites: Kaptulwa Secondary School and Mosop Mission School for orphans, both located within Chebole location of Mutarakwo division, in Sotik. At Kaptulwa Secondary, we planted 378 tree seedlings, and at Mosop Mission School, we planted 252 tree seedlings,” Kitur said.

Kitur said that the 600 tree seedlings donated by Chemelil Sugar Company were part of the seedlings which the tree planting team in Sotik distributed to communities in the area through area Chief Leonard Chirchir. Chief Chirchir distributed 590 tree seedlings to residents of Kenyelwet sub-location and 640 seedlings to those residing in Kapkures and Mosop sub-locations, respectively, to plant during the National Tree Planting Day.

Also present during the National Tree Planting Day in Sotik, presided over by Sub-County Deputy Commissioner Kieti, were the Sub-County Assistant County Commissioner Peter Kariuki, National Government-Constituency Development Fund Sotik official Eric Kirui, Administration Police (AP) Commandant Inspector Ngugi, Kaptulwa Secondary School Principal Eunice Cheruiyot, and Mosop Mission School Director Elijah Bett, among others.