The County government of Kisumu is set to launch a greening program that is aimed to step-up forest cover in the devolved unit.

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This came to the fore on Wednesday when the Regional Deputy Conservancy Director Mwai Muraguri alongside his counterpart Kenya Forest Services (KFS) Inspector Evans Ontiri called on Salmon Orimba, CEC, Environment  to mark the World Forests Day.

The two officials revealed that Kisumu County had a forest cover of 0.44% but lamented that it was among the lowest levels in the country.

In order to boost the dwindling forest cover in the county, the duo among other county officials stated that a greening phase will be launched in April and will span up-to June where trees will be planted. 

The project will take advantage of the heavy rain season in the country.

"We want to make Kisumu have a sustainable forest cover, cleaner, greener and a healthier place to live," the leaders stated. 

The county is set to plant 2000 trees in each ward and 10,000 trees on each of the two gazetted forests at Karateng' in Kisumu West sub county and Koguta forest in Nyakach sub county.

The county through the ministry of environment is also planning to establish environment clubs in schools and strengthen the existing ones by aligning them towards tree planting and conservation activities.