Bringing the degraded lands of Kanyerus back to life

The gazetting of May 10 as a National Tree Planting Day held a special significance for Geoffrey Pkemei. He is the project manager for Boma Ikolojia, a restoration programme in Kanyerus Sub-county, West Pokot County. For Geoffrey, the day wasn't just about remembering the lives of Kenyans lost to floods; it was also a chance for his community to engage in his pet project – land restoration. 

Climate Action found Geoffrey, who is also a teacher at Kanyerus Junior Secondary School, organising the community's tree planting exercise after Boma Ikolojia had donated seedlings. 

Reflecting on the programme's journey, he tells Climate Action that his community fled the area about four decades ago following constant disputes between them and their Ugandan neighbours. The disputes, mainly caused by cattle rustling, instigated the loss of lives and property and forced the people of Kanyerus to move further into Kenya.

During this period, Geoffrey and his age mates kept hearing their elders talk about home. Luckily, after many reconciliation meetings, the people of Kanyerus started moving back home in 2013. They found their land, which had been vacant for a long time, covered in a dense thicket of trees and shrubs. 

Having no economic activities to rely on, the community turned to readily available trees for charcoal production, a lucrative business in the region. Rapid deforestation hit the area for almost a decade, instigating dire environmental consequences. 

Witnessing this decline, Geoffrey approached his peers. In 2020, he mobilised 20 young men, forming Boma Ikolojia to educate the community on tree conservation. 

"The quick depletion of our forests worryingly left our land bare. Every man, woman and youth solely depended on charcoal and log sales. I knew we had to change," he explains. 

Boniface Kisang too was born away from home and was excited when his family moved back in 2013. Like the rest, the chairman of Boma Ikolojia's youth group watched his family descend on the trees, burning and selling charcoal every chance they got. Prior to Geoffrey’s approach, Boniface had seen the degradation and was already planting some trees at home. 

He and the other 19 young men shared Geoffrey's worries. They agreed to start a centralised tree nursery, which they have operated since 2012. That took work as the group needed resources. They approached their elders, who recognised the potential and offered part of the land from one of the three schools built to foster peace in the region.

Around that time, Geoffrey met Wegesa Jane Fraser, popularly known as Jjaja, from Kitale. A land restoration and reclamation expert, Jjaja inspires communities to develop social, natural and financial capital strength. Sharing Boma Ikolojia's vision, Jjaja agreed that there was hope for Kanyerus. 

She connected the Boma Ikolojia team with World Vision. The initiative impressed the non-governmental organisation, which provided the necessary materials to set up the tree nursery. It bought the team net shading, posts and tree seedlings. Water was a problem, with the only source being a spring accessible only by a few. Through World Vision, Boma Ikolojia channelled the water to their tree nursery project and community members' homesteads.

Later, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) facilitated training for these youth, arming them with tree propagation, grafting and other sustainable planting skills. Ever since, they have tended to their nursery, working in shifts, two members at a time. 

Today, Boniface explains their major hurdle is finding a sufficient market for their trees. Only some community members purchase from the nursery since replanting remains unfamiliar to many. 

The group aims to create a food forest by grafting fruit trees and sharing them within the community. Dennis Rotich, another group member, highlights the positive impact the initiative has had on the youth, explaining that income from selling tree seedlings is split into two: the youth retain a percentage, and the rest goes into the school lunch programme. 

“Most learners here walk up to 10 kilometres a day to get to school," he explains. "They attend if there's lunch and skip school when there is no food. The shared proceedings keep them coming, which we know is a long-term peace strategy.'

Women's role

Following the success of the youth-run tree nursery, Geoffrey shifted his focus to the women. 

The Climate Action team met them, too, during the tree-planting occasion. All 52 of them, led by their coordinator Irene Chemutai, are on a different but equally impactful journey. They are learning and practising sustainable farming techniques befitting their landscape. 

Irene explains that this gives them fresh vegetables, which were previously a luxury but are now a source of income.

"We used to pay Sh 500 for a boda boda ride to Kacheliba, about 40 kilometres away, only to bring home a handful of vegetables. This was unsustainable, and most of our families survived without vegetables," Irene says. 

Since attending a training initiated by Boma Ikolojia last year, she and four other women have grown vegetables, selling the surplus to their neighbours. The pioneering group of five learned the importance of restoration and maximising on the available resources. 

Priscilla Senteina Lekurtut, a trainer from Samburu who works closely with Jjaja, brings her knowledge of regenerative agriculture. She’s demonstrating a technique to control drainage and erosion on sloping land through swales, half-moons and banana circles.

To make these swales and half-moons, she and the pioneers help the rest of the women dig the necessary shapes, layer them with dry sticks and leaves, top them up with manure and cover them with soil. This, Priscilla explains, slows down water runoff while the organic matter decomposes to enrich the soil, boosting growth. They then carefully select their seeds, planting them strategically to maximise water usage and prevent soil erosion.

Susanna, who only speaks the local dialect, explains through an interpreter that she's joining the women's group for the first time. Witnessing the pioneer women nurture healthy vegetable gardens on what was previously considered barren land motivated her to join.

Today's experience is more than just a training session for her. She envisions owning a kitchen garden, the gateway to a future in which her family can access fresh vegetables. When we ask her about her daily activities before this training, Susanna lets out a hearty laugh. 

“I survive on burning and selling charcoal,” she replies.

She reveals that on average, she sells a bag of the commodity for Sh300 but she has seen the devastation caused by deforestation and now understands the importance of trees. The meagre income from charcoal burning, she says, isn't worth this destruction.

A shift in perception

Led by Mzee John Loriongot, the men are also present for tree planting. They acknowledge the significant shift in their perception of trees. Initially, trees meant logs, charcoal and a quick income. As deforestation took hold, they saw their livelihoods threatened.

Loriongot terms Geoffrey's intervention and Jjaja's arrival a timely turning point, saying the youth and women's projects revealed a notable contrast between their land and neighbouring communities. 

He is grateful that Boma Ikolojia considered men, too. World Vision facilitated the men's training on beekeeping and beehive-making. They gave them 40 hives to be paid in instalments from their honey proceeds. Loriongot received 10 hives, which strengthened his resolve to protect trees. 

“I no longer harvest trees here because more trees mean more nectar and more honey,”he says. He is already harvesting honey from his hives and plans to add more. 

Addressing the day's tree planters, the area’s representative in the National Assembly, John Repule, says he was sceptical about the initiative but soon noticed a difference between the fenced and unprotected areas. 

“Unlike the rest, the area fenced off for the restoration demo had better-looking trees and soil cover,” he says. 

The MP acknowledges the positive change, noting that the youths’ activities keep them from engaging in cattle rustling and other previously common practices. 

"Our women are safe from the smoke they inhaled during charcoal burning. They are now serving us very fresh vegetables,” he adds. He encourages residents to use the tree nursery and plant many trees. 
Joseph Akaule, having participated in the community's peace dialogues, explains that the three schools in the region are a government’s strategy to bridge communities. Young learners now see each other as friends, rather than rivals. He's grateful that one of the schools hosts and benefits from the tree nursery project.

Joseph applauds the transformation, saying the government's initiative to provide title deeds has empowered individual landowners to manage their land responsibly, including planting trees.

Area chief Stephen Lomaruk applauds Boma Ikolojia's dedication to environmental conservation. He laments the wasted years when residents deserted the land. He recounts the area's emptiness when he took office in 1998 and spent three-quarters of his tenure organising reconciliations. 

“I was devastated when our people came back and attacked the forests. I'm happy that we're on a restoration path and hope that we'll spread this kitchen gardens gospel,” he says.

Lomaruk recalls a recent incident in which Jjaja stopped a truck transporting logs to Uganda. Referring to her as the community's Wangari Maathai, the renowned environmental activist and Nobel Peace laureate, he shows us where the logs lie, neglected. The loggers fled following Jjaja’s interruption and feared to return.

Geoffrey explains that Boma Ikolojia's core objective is restoring the landscape and building resilience among pastoral communities. He praises the community's collaboration, citing incidents where they have stopped cattle rustlers from passing through their land. 

“We all play crucial roles; the youth nurture our trees, the women boost nutrition, and the men are adopting sustainable economics,” he says.

Jjaja’s childhood memories fuel her passion for environmental restoration. She motivates communities like Kanyerus to adopt sustainability by reclaiming degraded land by utilising their resources. 

Beyond planting trees, she advocates for permaculture, which mimics natural ecosystems to promote biodiversity, maximise yields in small spaces and foster soil health.

In Kanyerus, Jjaja collaborates with teachers like Alice Mwangi, an agroecologist who runs Hillside Organic Garden in Uthiru. Beyond kitchen gardens and fruit trees, Jjaja's team introduces communities to mushroom growing, rabbit keeping and mixed poultry for economic growth. 

“We teach communities, for example, that rabbits are nutritious and their urine is a valuable resource, a natural fertiliser that replaces the soil-harming chemicals,”she states.

Jjaja wishes to build a closed-loop system, enrich the soil, produce nutritious food, and utilise waste responsibly. She emphasises the importance of locally sourced seeds, ensuring environmental adaptation and promoting community self-reliance with the ultimate goal of ecological restoration and a healthier, more resilient community. 

“By consuming locally grown, nutrient-rich vegetables, the people of Kanyerus are strengthening their bodies and ability to resist disease,” Jjaja says. 

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