National Tree Growing Day is a public holiday in Kenya. It was officially started on November 13, 2023, by the Interior Cabinet Secretary, Kithure Kindiki, following an official notice published on November 6, 2023. This made Kenya the first and only country in the world to create a public holiday for tree planting.

The holiday is part of a government plan to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 and protect 10.6 million hectares of damaged land and ecosystems. In November 2023, Kenya’s forest cover was 8.8%, and tree cover was 12.13%. The government set a goal to plant 500 million trees by the end of December 2023, aiming to increase forest cover to 30% by 2050. This effort is part of an ongoing annual plan in Kenya’s environmental strategy. On the first National Tree Growing Day, about 150 million tree seedlings were planted.

A second National Tree Growing Day was declared as a public holiday for May 10, 2024. The goal for this event is to plant one billion trees in a single day.

Background

Kenya's 2010 Constitution said the country needs at least 10% of its land to have trees. Kenya Vision 2030, the national development plan, focused on protecting natural resources to help the economy grow and set a goal to increase forest area to 10% by 2030.

To reach the 10% tree cover goal, the government created a plan to meet the target by 2022. One part of this plan included restarting Chief's tree nurseries and using 10% of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for tree planting projects.

From 1990 to 2015, 311,000 hectares of forest were turned into other types of land. A 2013 forest cover study gave a starting point for future planning. This study showed that in 2010, forests covered 4.18 million hectares, or 6.99% of Kenya's total land. This data helped track progress toward the constitutional goal. In 2015, forest cover was estimated at 7.2% based on projections from the 2010 data.

Between 2005 and 2015, the government spent KES 37 billion (US$438 million) on climate change programs, while development partners spent KES 194 billion (US$2.29 billion).

In 2022, Kenya met its constitutional goal of 10% forest cover, as announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta on May 27. The president also set a new goal of reaching 30% forest cover by 2050 and started a campaign to support it. The campaign, timed with the March–April–May (MAM) rainy season, gave tree seedlings to schools and prisons. The government provided about 31,000 kg of seeds for schools and 1,000 kg for prisons for planting during the rainy season.

A long drought began in 2020 in Kenya and the Horn of Africa region, affecting about 23 million people. Nearly one million children had severe malnutrition, and another million people left their homes to find food, water, and work. Droughts caused local conflicts over scarce resources, threatened national security, and led to food shortages and loss of livestock. Arid and semiarid lands cover 84% of Kenya's land and are home to about 34% of the population. In 2022, the loss of pasture and water sources in these areas caused the death of over 1.5 million cattle.

To help the environment and reduce risks, the Kenyan government invested $80 million to increase forest cover and promote sustainable practices. Tree seedlings were available to the public through local forest agencies and chiefs’ offices across the country.

Impact

The dry Northeastern Region, which includes Garissa, Mandera, and Wajir counties, planted more than 300,000 trees during the National Tree Planting Day. This effort involved working with local leaders, and 441 Chiefs helped plant at least 680 trees each in their areas. The plan focused on strategies specific to the region.

On December 21, 2022, President William Ruto introduced the JazaMiti (Fill the Trees) app and JazaMiti dashboard. The app is used by individuals or groups planting trees to record their activities. It uses technology to track tree growth over time and allows users to report progress. Data from the app will be checked every four months each year.

The app showed that over 10 million seedlings were planted on the National Tree Planting Day. This number is much lower than the 150 million trees officially reported by Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura.