In a move to conserve water catchment areas, the county governments of Uasin-Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet have convened a meeting to deliberate on ways to save the areas.
Speaking after the meeting governors Jackson Mandago and Alex Tolgos said the two counties have agreed to lay strategies to conserve the Kaptagat Forest to be a water catchment area.
The two governors said the forest is important to the two counties in that River Sosian that crosses Eldoret and Torok falls in Elgeyo-Marakwet owe their origin at Kaptagat Forest.
“We have meet as the two counties to engage our stakeholders on some ways that will help us in conserving the Kaptagat forest which is important forest to the two counties,” said Mandago.
Tolgos said some group had tried to replant some trees in the forest but the exercise failed to kick off smoothly because some people failed to consider all the stakeholders which resulted in slowing down the process.
The governor pointed out the group who had tried to do a forestation failed to include key stakeholders like saw millers and local herdsmen who graze their animals at the forest.
“The exercise failed to kick off as expected because the group failed to include stakeholders like saw millers and local forest users that plays a crucial role,” said Tolgos.
Kaptagat Forest is situated at the boundary of the two counties and the plans to conserve it saw the heads of conservancy from Nairobi attend the meeting.
Dr Isaac Kalua, the chairman of Kenya water Towers Agency (KWTA) said his organisation conducted a study across all the 47 counties to identify the forest cover and they found out that the leading county is Nyeri with 38 percent followed by Elgeyo-Marakwet with 37.4 percent. Uasin-Gishu has 7.5 percent.
Dr Kalua stated that the stakeholders should work in partnership to achieve the dream of conserving the forests.