Nyamira county's first lady, Naomi Nyagarama, has said she is set to plant over 2 million trees by April in a bid to conserve the environment.
Nyagarama, who has started a program of distributing free grevillea trees to residents, said she had a passion for conserving the environment, a task which she said has been ignored by many. She stated that she wants to turn Nyamira green with environment-friendly trees that conserve water and attract rainfall.
Speaking in Nyamusi Ward on Wednesday, Ms Nyagarama said she was moved by last years' long dry spell that lasted four months from January. She attributed the drought to residents planting gum trees and other water-sucking trees near water sources.
''I am doing this exercise for the passion of our environment which many have neglected and it plays a very important role in our lives.I don't want us to experience the same drought we saw last year which was the longest ever for decades. I want Nyamira to be green in the next few years", she said.
She, however, encouraged the residents to make use of the rains in this month and plant as many trees as they possibly could since they would be of much help in the future days.
Ms Nyagarama is also distributing free banana tubers to Nyamira residents which she says will boost them economically. Meanwhile, the county government has started an exercise of cutting down all gum trees near water sources and encouraging residents to replace them with other trees which suck less water to avoid scarcity of water during dry seasons in the area.