Nairobi — Defence Cabinet Secretary nominee Soipan Tuya has dismissed claims she approved expenditure of millions to facilitate chopper use by cabinet Secretaries during tree planting exercise last year.
Tuya who previously was assigned to the Environment and Sanitation docket before her dismissal, denied the claims, saying her role during the tree growing initiative was confined to coordination.
"My main role as CS for Environment in the tree growing activity was really coordinator. In the coordinator role when I was CS for Environment, we did not make any provisions for transport or logistical arrangements for Cabinet Secretaries when they were doing their ministerial activities around tree growing," she stated.
Kenyans had questioned the budget put into the nationwide tree planting exercise which took place in November last year.
Of concern was the amount invested in the various government officials such as the Cabinet Secretaries who traversed the country in choppers to take part in the tree planting drive.
The estimated cost of hiring a helicopter in Kenya is between Ksh 150,000 and Ksh 200,000 per hour.
"So any Cabinet Secretary who travelled by chopper or road, it was outside of my mandate and scope and therefore I cannot speak to that. In terms of resources, I had no mandate to resource anybody to go out and plant trees,"Tuya stated.
The Defence Cabinet Secretary nominee elaborated that the issue was addressed during which made the government change tact on tree planting exercise through spearheading grassroot initiatives.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"During the second national tree growing programme, and having noted a number of concerns raised by Kenyans around the heavy presence of helicopters and the heavy spending around tree growing, we addressed that at Cabinet level and made sure that the exercise was very grassroots centered," Tuya said.
"You will appreciate that the nature of the ecosystem restoration programme is that it has to have everybody on board; from individual Kenyans, private sector, and all government agencies. So it cannot be the preserve of only the Ministry of Environment, and that is why we were very heavy on the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to the tree growing programme,"she added.
Tuya served in the Environment docket previously following her nomination by President William Ruto in 2022 and served in the ministry until last month when the Head of State dismissed the Cabinet.
In the new cabinet, Tuya was swapped with Aden Duale who took over the Environment docket in the changes.
