Kenya Rallies for Mazingira Day 2025 With a Call to Plant Fruit Trees and Clean Up School.
By Peace Muthoka.
Nairobi – The countdown has begun for Mazingira Day 2025, Kenya’s newest national holiday dedicated to protecting the environment. On October 10, Kenyans across the country will pause their daily routines to return to the most familiar of places—their former primary schools—armed with fruit tree seedlings and a determination to clean up their surroundings.
This year’s celebrations will run under the theme “Citizen-Centric Tree Growing and Environmental Stewardship.” The Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry says the focus will be on planting fruit trees in schools, a move that brings together environmental care, nutrition, and livelihoods.
Principal Secretary for Environment and Climate Change, Dr. Eng. Festus Ng’eno, described the decision to spotlight fruit trees as both symbolic and practical. “Fruit trees are food, shade, and a source of income. They will feed children, cool our classrooms, improve our biodiversity, and even generate revenue through surplus sales,” he said at a media briefing in Nairobi.
At the heart of the campaign is a simple yet powerful rallying cry: “Turudi Primo Tukadonate Fruit Trees na Kuclean Environment.” The slogan urges Kenyans to revisit the schools where their educational journey began, plant fruit trees with pupils, and help tidy up schoolyards and nearby markets. “This is about weaving intergenerational responsibility,” Dr. Ng’eno explained. “It’s about creating a living legacy.”
The main national event will be held in Trans-Nzoia County at Kabuyefwe Primary School and Kabuyefwe Boys, where more than 10,000 trees will take root across 60 acres. The day will also feature exhibitions, cultural performances, and mentorship sessions that bring leaders, learners, and local communities together.
But Mazingira Day is not just about one big celebration. Across the country, more than 9,000 primary schools will simultaneously host activities, supported by assistant chiefs, Cabinet Secretaries, Governors, and alumni. From tree planting to market clean-ups, the decentralized events are designed to make every community feel part of a larger national mission.
The scale is enormous. The Ministry targets 71.14 million fruit tree seedlings across 35,570 schools. Every school will grow at least 2,000 fruit trees, while those with less land will distribute seedlings to learners to plant at home. In this way, the program ensures that every child contributes to Kenya’s environmental restoration journey.
The event ties directly to President William Ruto’s 15 Billion Tree Growing Programme and the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy (2023–2032), which aim to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded land and push the country toward 30 percent tree cover by 2032. Already, Kenyans have planted close to one billion trees since the program’s launch in December 2022.
Yet Mazingira Day is about more than planting. Waste management will feature prominently, with communities being sensitized on the use of newly gazetted color-coded bins for waste segregation. Clean markets and school compounds, officials believe, are just as important as green landscapes.
The choice of schools as the focus point is deliberate. They are places where values are shaped and habits formed. By involving children directly, the Ministry hopes to cultivate a new generation that views the environment not as a distant concept but as part of their everyday life. Schools will double as “living classrooms,” where pupils learn agroforestry practically while also benefiting from nutritious fruits that can boost feeding programs.
For many alumni, the day will also be deeply personal. Planting a tree in the schoolyard where one once played is both an act of nostalgia and an investment in the future. It is a chance to give back in a simple but profound way.
As October 10 approaches, the message is clear: Mazingira Day belongs to everyone. Whether you plant a mango tree in your childhood school, sweep your market square, or teach a child why trees matter, you will be part of a nationwide movement to secure a greener, healthier, and more hopeful Kenya.
