Nairobi — At least 150 million tree seedlings are available at Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) and Kenya Forest Service (KFS) nurseries across the country to support Monday's national tree planing exercise.

Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya announced in a statement issued on Friday the seedlings will be availed at forty-seven launch sites across the counties.

Nurseries of other Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government will augment efforts by KEFRI and KFS, she said.

"Additionally, there are millions of seedlings in private nurseries, run by women and youth groups in Community Forest Associations and Community Based Organizations across the country available at a fee," Tuya added.

The Cabinet Secretary appealed to Kenyans to document all tree growing activities through a mobile application dubbed 'Jaza Miti' to help the ministry keep track of progress made towards achieving an ambitious goal of planting 100 million trees on Monday alone.

Monday's tree planting was designated as a national holiday following a Cabinet resolution to support President William Ruto's ambition to have 5 billion trees planted in five years.

The renewed efforts are part of Kenya's commitment to attain the United Nations-recommended 10 per cent forest cover minimum which is also enshrined in law.

Kenya missed an initial target to cross the 10 per cent mark by 2022 under President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The national forest cover however grew to 8.8 per cent from 5.9 per cent in 2018 according to a National Forest Resources Assessment (NFRA) report released in 2022.

Overall, the NFRA report estimated Kenya's tree cover at 12.1 per cent.