On Saturday, Mazingira day, President William Ruto joined thousands of Kenyans at Kenya Seed Company’s Elgon Downs Farm in Endebess, Trans Nzoia County, to lead a massive tree-planting drive.
This was an important day for Kenyans to help reclaim the beauty of the degraded lands in a wake to combating the brunt effects of the climate change brought by extreme deforestation.
President William Ruto, an advocate for global climate action globally and locally expressed gratitude to citizens for joining the nationwide tree-planting drive to hit the target of 5.3 million trees for Mazingira Day, stating.
“We thank Kenyans for participating in today’s tree-planting exercise in support of our target to mark Mazingira Day. Let us sustain this spirit as we work towards our goal of growing 15 billion trees by 2032 to combat climate change and restore our environment.”
During the Mazingira Day celebrations held in Endebess, Trans Nzoia County, the President distributed cocoa seedlings to local farmers to pioneer commercial cocoa farming in the country, noting; “our goal is to grow trees that protect the environment while generating income for farmers.”
He also introduced aerial seeding technology to speed up forest restoration efforts, and launched the Mt Elgon Integrated Conservation and Livelihood Improvement Programme Strategic Plan 2026–2036 to protect water sources, revive degraded forests, and uplift surrounding communities.
The event marked an environmental Day while giving fresh momentum to Kenya’s ambitious goal of growing 15 billion trees by 2032.
The October 10th public holiday was originally celebrated as Moi Day in honor of former President Daniel arap Moi, but it was dropped from the national calendar following the adoption of the 2010 Constitution.
The High Court reinstated it in November 2017. Since then, its name has changed multiple times: it was renamed Huduma Day by the Cabinet in 2019, gazette as Utamaduni Day by the Ministry of Interior in 2020, and finally designated as Mazingira Day by President William Ruto in April 2024.
This year’s national celebration, held under the theme “Our Environment, Our Responsibility a hint to a Collective Action for Tree Growing and Environmental Stewardship,” served as the climax of Mazingira Week, which ran from October 5 to 10.
Across the country, the government set to plant 17.24 million trees throughout the week through community, institutional, and village-level drives.
At the main site in Endebess, organizers aimed to plant roughly 20,000 seedlings alongside local residents who turned out in large numbers.
President Ruto was joined by Environment Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, and other senior officials.
Before heading to Elgon Downs Farm for the main Presidential Green Challenge and central national ceremony, the day’s events kicked off at Konoin Primary School in Shikhendu.
Early figures showed strong momentum across the country. By Saturday afternoon, Kenyans had already planted about 3.3 million trees on Mazingira Day alone, with figures continuing to climb as updates trickled in. Over the entire Mazingira Week, the nationwide tally reached 4.41 million trees.
It was revealed by a representative from the State Department for Forestry that Kenya’s national tree-planting tracking dashboard officially crossed the two-billion-tree mark.
The broader campaign relies on coordinated efforts of over 51,000 community planters across 79 designated sites in 31 counties. Also, the initiative relies on tasking village elders with planting 100 trees in each village they hail from totalling to 77,252 villages.
The National Youth Service (NYS) was also enlisted to plant 1.5 million trees and 1 Million trees to be planted by the Kenya Prisons Service to plant one million trees across 68 facilities.
The government is also running a “Green Challenge” designed to rally 200,000 Kenyans to plant six million trees in a single hour today.
Trans Nzoia was chosen to host the national ceremony in recognition of its strong track record in environmental conservation and the seamless collaboration between county leaders, local communities, and national agencies.
The county set its own goal to plant tens of thousands of trees including fruit-bearing varieties to boost both environmental protection and local food security.
Mazingira day is observed every year on October 10 since its renaming in 2024, to encourage everyone across the country to take an active role in protecting the environment.
The initiative is a cornerstone of the government’s 15 Billion Tree Growing Programme, which aims to boost Kenya’s tree cover to 30 percent by 2032 while restoring degraded lands.
Officials stressed that planting seeds is only the first step to long-term success on nurturing them.
They called for a unified, whole-of-society effort involving government agencies, private businesses, and everyday citizens to monitor survival rates and ensure the trees thrive, reinforcing the idea that safeguarding the environment is a shared duty for generations to come.
According to the Kenya Forest Service, across the Central highlands Western, Eastern and Nyanza Conservancies reported tree-growing activities accounted for 16,824 seedlings planted, complementing the clean-up exercises aimed at promoting proper waste management and cleaner public spaces.
