Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko has vowed to fire ineffective officers mandated to man the small forest cover in Mombasa County.
Tobiko said the officers have failed in their mandate and must work extra hard or be axed.
Addressing locals at Ganaola in Jomvu Constituency Mombasa County over the weekend after he led a tree planting exercise in the area, Tobiko said Ganaola forest was facing extinction at the expense of lazy Kenya forest officers.
“So if you cannot man a less than 4,000 hectares of forest cover then what’s your work, go home,” charged the former Director of public prosecution.
100 days
He gave the officers 100 days to come up with a strategy of revamping the forest.
“I need a rapid results initiative within the next 100 days, I do not need any lame excuse, I will be back here to see the results after the lapse of the three months period,” noted the CS.
Tobiko reiterated that he will not spare any lazy officer, tasking all staffs under his ministry to be responsible or be shown the door.
Mangrove harvesting ban effective
He also said unlike Lamu County where 68,000 of mangrove forest cover was protected and locals were already earning from it, the ban on mangrove harvesting in Mombasa County remain effective.
The environment CS also urged the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute- KEMFRI to help women and youths groups at the Coast to benefit from Mangrove without cutting down the trees.
He tasked KEMFRI science and marine experts James Kairu to instill into women and youths groups the knowledge of harvesting from Mangrove without cutting down the trees.
On his part Mr. Kairu assured the CS that KEMFRI was working towards benefiting the communities from mangrove.
“We recently launched Mikoko pamoja women income generating project in Ganze, Kilifi County, and the second one is being launched on Monday (today) at Vanga village in Kwale County,” he said.
10,000 trees planted
During the afforestation exercise over the weekend over 10,000 seedlings were planted.
Among the participants during the tree planting exercise were the County government of Mombasa, the Kenya Red Cross Society Mombasa branch, Swahilipot-Hub, environmental experts and activists and the community.
