Government Champions Highway Greening Along Eastern Bypass Ahead of Mazingira Day

The Government has intensified efforts to promote environmental restoration and climate resilience through a highway greening initiative along the Eastern Bypass in Nairobi, ahead of this year's Mazingira Day celebrations.
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Dr. Deborah Mlongo Barasa, joined her Roads and Transport counterpart, Hon. Davis Chirchir, in a tree-growing exercise aimed at integrating environmental conservation into the country's road and transport infrastructure.
The exercise was also attended by the Principal Secretary for Roads, Eng. Joseph Mbugua, and the Principal Secretary for Transport, Mr. Daghar, alongside representatives from various government agencies.
Participating institutions included the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), Kenya Roads Board (KRB), Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK), Kenya Engineering Technology Registration Board (KETRB), Kenya Railways Corporation, LAPSSET, Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (NaMATA), National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) and Kenya Forest Service (KFS).
The initiative underscored the importance of a whole-of-government approach to environmental conservation, demonstrating how road and transport infrastructure can contribute to restoring degraded landscapes, enhancing green spaces and strengthening climate resilience.
Highway greening goes beyond planting trees along roadsides. It plays a critical role in protecting landscapes, improving environmental quality and promoting sustainable infrastructure development.
The exercise also reinforced the Government's commitment to the 15 Billion Trees Programme, which seeks to accelerate forest and landscape restoration while addressing the impacts of climate change.
The participation of the Ministry of Roads and Transport and its agencies demonstrated the importance of interministerial collaboration in advancing Kenya's environmental restoration agenda.
As the country prepares to mark Mazingira Day under the theme "Our Environment, Our Responsibility," Kenyans are encouraged to actively participate in tree growing, environmental conservation and restoration initiatives within their communities.
The Government continues to rally ministries, departments, agencies, communities and individuals to embrace environmental stewardship as a collective responsibility towards building a greener, healthier and more climate-resilient Kenya.