Project Overview 

KeMU’s PARG comprises 20 members from university management, departments, students, community-based organisations (CBOs), county government of Meru and NGOs. The PARG has held several meetings to identify and implement a suitable intervention(s) that the university can adopt to strengthen its role in addressing climate change. During the meetings, members identified issues such as deforestation, improper waste management and hydro-meteorological hazards to be addressed to create widespread awareness and action on climate change. Members discussed the importance of indigenous knowledge systems and their role in climate mitigation and adaptation. The group also settled on a curriculum review for maximum impact and sustainability. The team has reviewed two courses to expose all the students to knowledge of climate change. The two courses reviewed are Environmental Science and Environmental Health.

Three greening activities identified by KeMU PARG are waste management, the establishment of a tree nursery for schools and the surrounding community, and the development of an institutional policy on climate change. KeMU, through the PARG, will engage in waste sorting practices, sell the recyclables and use the organic waste to generate fertilisers that will be utilised in the tree nursery establishment. The establishment of the tree nursery will involve germinating indigenous and endangered tree species, medicinal trees, and orphaned crops. The university will partner with a CBO, Farm Forestry Smallholder Producers Association of Kenya, to set up the tree nursery. Reforestation and afforestation efforts using the tree seedlings will be carried out at KeMU’s arboretum, identified areas within the community and four lower education level institutions (secondary and primary) in Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties. The university will also adopt the neighbouring secondary and primary schools to train the young students on sustainable management of the natural world. Developing an institutional policy on climate change will address sustainability practices within the university.