Religious leaders told to fight encroachers by planting trees

PIC: Former agriculture minister Victoria Sekitoleko hands an orange seedling to Rev. Edward Muyomba. Right is RDC Maj. David Matovu. (Credit: Henry Nsubuga)

TREE PLANTING | MISSION GREEN CAMPAIGN

Mukono Resident District Commissioner Maj. David Matovu has urged religious and cultural leaders to plant trees as it is one of the safe ways of protecting their big chunks of land against encroachers.

Matovu said religious and cultural leaders are always flocking his office and the courts to complain about encroachers.

He was speaking during the launch of the tree planting campaign in Mukono on Saturday. The event was organised by the Rotary Club of Kampala-Impala.

"Planting trees on idle land has a lot of advantages. Those trees will be a source of firewood, timber and fruits among other benefits," he said.

He said that if all schools which have land embrace the campaign of tree planting, the challenge of long drought, which has affected almost all the districts of Uganda, will be sorted in a few years to come.

Former agriculture minister Victoria Sekitoleko urged Ugandans to start planting trees as a business, saying it will save the environment which is being exploited by the mushrooming factories and other human activities.

"As a grandmother, I have seen tree planting as the most treasured thing a person can do for the future of our Country. People are crying of the prolonged drought, firewood and water scarcity, forgetting that the solution for all those is in tree planting," she advised.

Sekitoleko, who is also the charter president for the Rotary Club of Kampala-Impala, urged parents and schools to educate children about the advantages of planting trees.

Dr. Jennifer Namusobya, the Rotary Club president for Kampala-Impala said under the Mission Green campaign, they are set to plant not less than 50,000 .