KAKUMA, Kenya, Jun 06 (IPS) – Char Tito is hammering nails into wood at Kakuma Arid Zone Secondary School in Turkana County, northern Kenya. The 16-year-old is making a traditional chair under the scorching sun outside one of the classroom blocks.
The wood she is using is from an unpopular source in this community. It is from a species of mesquite named Prosopis juliflora, which is native to Central and South America and is known in Kenya as mathenge.
Many locals hate mathenge in Turkana County due to its invasiveness and its thorns that are harsh to humans and can cause injuries to livestock. Locals say rivers and dams dry fast in areas with mathenge, and it dominates other plants.
Over the years, the residents have found it an easy source of firewood and charcoal, fuel for many in this community.
But youths, including girls, are now repurposing the mathenge tree to make furniture, particularly chairs.
“Plastic chairs are expensive. This is why I started making chairs from mathenge earlier this month,” says Tito, who fled the war in South Sudan to seek refuge in Kakuma Refugee Camp in 2017.
“I was taught here at school. Mathenge is abundant. We have been using it for firewood for years. I did not know that it could be used to make chairs.”
Income-Generating Scheme
The land in Kakuma is barren with sparse vegetation and the soils are so poor that they do not support agriculture. Turkana County receives little or no rain and can go for five years without experiencing a single drop of rain.
Acacia trees and mathenge, which are always green despite the high temperatures and water scarcity, make up most of the trees in this community.
Government statistics indicate that the mathenge trees spread at a rate of 15 percent yearly and have so far colonized a million acres of land in Kenya.
Some use mathenge to fence their homes and to make livestock shelters.
Locals survive on livestock production and trading charcoal and firewood.
Dennis Mutiso, a deputy director at Girl Child Network (GCN), a grassroots non-governmental organization supporting Tito and hundreds of other refugees, says the project is equipping learners with green skills.
“It is contributing to national climate plans. It aligns with the school curriculum,” he says.
Mutiso says those youths who have been trained in making chairs partner with those untrained to pass the knowledge to the community.
Tito, who lives with her mother and her three siblings, is so far making chairs for household use but is planning to make some for sale to her neighbors.
“This is a skill that I can use for my entire life. I am looking forward to earning a living out of carpentry,” she says, smiling.
Mathenge was introduced in the 1970s in the East African country to restore degraded dry lands. It is drought resistant, with its deep roots making it ideal for afforestation in areas like Turkana. The mathenge restored the area and blocked wind erosion in some areas, but at a cost to the locals.
Despite the massive cutting down of this tree for firewood and charcoal, the mathenge regenerates fast, unlike other trees like Acacia.
Lewis Obam, a conservator at the Forestry Commission under Turkana County, says there was a negative perception of the mathenge in the community.
“Communities lost their goats after consuming the tree. Its thorns were affecting the community,” he says.
Obam says mathenge is a colonizer and spreads so fast.
“It was meant to counter desertification. The intention was good,” he says.
Obam says its hardwood is ideal for making chairs.
“It has more opportunities than we knew. It has the second hardest wood in this area. We need maximum use of the mathenge.”
Protecting Environment
To restore other trees in this semi-arid land, Tito and other girls are planting trees at school and in their homes. She has planted five trees at home and many at school, but water is a challenge amid temperatures that can go as high as 47 degrees Celsius.
“I am proud that I am contributing to measures that reduce the effects of climate change,” she says.
Sometimes, the girls bring water from home to school to ensure that the trees survive.
Trees help mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Kenya is targeting to plant at least 15 billion trees by 2032 through its National Tree Growing Restoration campaign launched in December 2022.
Magdalene Ngimoe, another learner at Kakuma Arid Zone Secondary School, says she has so far planted two trees at her home in Kiwandege village in Kakuma.
“I hate mathenge. It makes our lives difficult. But I am happy that I am using it to make chairs. I am also planting trees at school, which will provide shade to other students,” says the 16-year-old Kenyan Ngimoe, the firstborn in a family of seven.
Her family survives on selling meat and she hopes she will earn some money from her newly acquired craft.
Edwin Chabari, a manager at Kakuma Refugee Camp under the Department of Refugee Services, says Mathenge has been a menace not only within the camp but also in the area.
“The local youths can get cash from a tree that we thought was a menace,” he says.
GCN, with funding from Education Above All, a global education foundation based in Qatar, has so far planted 896,000 trees in Kakuma and Dadaab and is targeting 2.4 million trees by next year.
Ngimoe’s favorite subject is science and she wants to be a lawyer representing vulnerable children.
Established in 1992, Kakuma Refugee Camp is home to 304,000 people from more than 10 countries, like South Sudan, Burundi, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Joseph Ochura, sub-county director in Turkana County under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), says the tree-planting initiative has enhanced the learning environment.
“When you visit most of the schools that have been supported, you will see big shades of trees. Whenever there is a break time, learners sit there, including the teachers. Sometimes, some lessons are even carried out under that shade,” Ochura says.
He says that of the 15 billion trees set by the government, TSC was allocated 200 million trees.
Some schools also have their tree nurseries.
When ready, they plant the seedlings at the school and supply others to the community.
“Some of the girls are at the forefront in tree planting. That is a plus. That is what we are telling the girls—outside school, you can still do this in the community,” Ochura says.
Tito, whose favorite subject is English and who wants to be a doctor, is happy to be part of the green jobs being created in Kakuma.
“As a girl, I am proud of myself. I am contributing to environmental protection,” she says.
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