Mandera Municipality Wins Global Award for Transformative Greening Programme
Mandera, Kenya — Mandera Municipality has been globally recognised for its groundbreaking Greening and Afforestation Programme, earning the AIPH World Green City Award 2024 in the Living Green for Climate Change category.
The initiative, implemented in one of Kenya’s most environmentally challenging counties, has begun transforming Mandera from a dusty, semi-arid landscape into a slowly emerging green hub. Faced with scorching temperatures, erratic rainfall and recurring droughts, Mandera developed a comprehensive afforestation strategy aimed at restoring the environment while uplifting vulnerable communities.
At the heart of the programme is a massive tree-planting effort supported by an advanced water infrastructure system. The municipality has installed both underground and elevated water storage tanks, continuously replenished by water bowsers to ensure consistent irrigation of thousands of young trees—critical in the region’s extremely dry climate.
More than 1,300 local residents, most of them women and youth, are directly involved in nurturing the trees and maintaining the greening sites. Participants earn monthly stipends, providing much-needed income for families in a county grappling with high poverty and unemployment.
Schools and community groups are also actively engaged, helping embed environmental stewardship among children and youth while extending the programme’s impact to villages and institutions across the region.
So far, the initiative has planted over 200,000 trees, a milestone that environmental experts say is already contributing to improved local microclimates, enhanced shade, and reduced heat stress for residents. The programme is also credited with fostering community cohesion and promoting climate resilience in an area prone to extreme weather conditions.
Mandera officials say the transformation has been remarkable, with residents reporting cooler surroundings and renewed hope in efforts to combat climate change. Communities have begun replicating the initiative independently, a development hailed as a sign of long-term sustainability.
The AIPH award places Mandera among global leaders in urban greening, highlighting its innovative, people-centred approach to addressing environmental degradation and socio-economic challenges simultaneously.
As the programme continues to expand, Mandera Municipality says it aims to create a greener, healthier and more liveable environment for future generations—turning one of Kenya’s driest counties into a model of climate adaptation and community empowerment.