Kenya has planted over 281 million trees putting it in the top five in a United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) global campaign.

The Unep outreach unit chief Theodore Oben says the seedlings were planted in three provinces over the past three years. "Kenya is among the leading States in planting trees under the programme that has grown 7.4 billion seedlings globally since 2006," Oben says. China leads the pack with 2.6 billion seedlings, Ethiopia (1.4 billion), Turkey (711 million) and Mexico (537 million).

"We planted 25,000 trees in the coastal region and we intend to grow 80,000 seedlings in three provinces this rainy season," he said. He was speaking in Elementaita where Unep and private companies including Safaricom, Pinklakeman and Mavuno Michezo planted 5,000 trees.

The Unep billion-tree campaign is a global initiative launched at the climate change conference in 2006 in Nairobi. "The target of seven billion was surpassed in September after the Chinese Government joined the campaign," Oben says.