The weekends and holidays have always been a special time for the Mutunkeis and their extended family because of their routine. The family comes together and partakes in outdoor activities. The Mutunkeis have done everything from visiting the various parks dotted around our country, to participating in charity walks. One thing that stands out is that theirs isn’t just fun times; they always ensure that they make time to plant seedlings and nurture them until they are full-grown trees.
Fifteen-year-old Lesein Mutunkei enjoyed these moments with his family, especially in his younger years when his imagination was still growing. While all the fun-filled family activities increased his enjoyment of leisure time, he grew especially fond of planting trees. Thereafter, in the evenings, when the sun was lowering and his energy was still at its peak, he would keep himself occupied on the estate football field with other children, and passers-by would hear a chorus of “gooooooaaaaal” coming from the pitch.
Football was just a pass time at first; he played it for fun because he didn’t think it would be a long-term hobby. When he was seven, Lesein started playing tennis and he put his all into practicing the game. It was no easy feat but he had the advantage of being an athletic child; so, running from one corner to the other with a racket in hand was thrilling, if not fulfilling for the young boy. When he wasn’t playing tennis, he was running or swimming or walking – an envious level of stamina. By the time he was twelve, there was a paradigm shift, and after receiving much praise and several compliments on his football skills, Lesein joined Ligi Ndogo and started taking football seriously. Soon, his spirit led him to his school’s football team. He quickly became one of the best strikers.
When he wasn’t running on the pitch, Lesein still invested his time in the environment. He wanted to educate himself on environmental conservation and this goal led him to a website that had statistics on the tree coverage area in Kenya as well as the painful number of trees cut down in a single day. As he researched further, the calculations further revealed this number into seconds; and Lesein was distraught. He probed further with his own calculations and learned that every hour, the number of trees lost is equivalent to the size of six professional football fields. Understanding the numbers while comparing them to a place he was familiar with was the basis of Trees4Goals.
Trees4Goals is an initiative by Lesein that motivates him to be a better player while conserving the environment. For every goal he scores, he plants a tree; and between January – when the initiative started – and August of 2019, he scored 109 goals and planted just as many trees. He now plants 11 trees for every goal scored and also plants trees at every opportunity. So far, Lesein has facilitated the planting of more than 4,000 trees all across Kenya including at his home, schools, forests, his grandparents’ home, and even places he has holidayed on the Coast.
This hasn’t been a man-solo mission; Lesein has brought his friends, family, and neighbours on board because after all, ‘Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much’. Trees4Goals is part of Kijani World: a collective of young leaders that have committed to protecting the environment using their talents. Trees4Goals, together with the rest of Kijani World was introduced to a school in Kiserian courtesy of Lesein’s grandmother. Here, they have continued to work with the students to plant trees within the school compound, and Lesein has gone the extra mile to donate footballs so that the kids can enjoy that thrill that comes from chasing after running around the football pitch. Lesein also approached various sporting clubs in his school such as the rugby and basketball teams to form ‘St. Mary’s Trees4Goals’.
Lesein has launched his initiative in 10 different schools mainly around Kajiado. One of the largest exercises that have taken place is the planting of an impressive 3,000 trees at Kibera school. And what’s more, he doesn’t just want people to plant trees. He wants them to know the reason why it is being done – to save the world.
The young environmentalist lives by Wangari Maathai’s saying, “I will be a hummingbird; I will do the best I can” and because of his enthusiasm, coupled with determination, more children and adults have joined his cause to conserve the environment. Inspired by Lesein’s impactful story of linking his passions to environmentalism, initiatives such as Hoops for Trees – which uses basketball instead of football – have mushroomed with different sports as the basis for environmentalism.
The same story has propelled Lesein to unbelievably dazzling heights. He has not only met with the current president but has attended the prestigious United Nations youth climate summit in 2019 hosted in New York. Meeting with other ambitious young environmentalists convinced Lesein that his environmental work could be even bigger than he imagined. Eventually, Lesein aims to take his sports-inspired environmental initiative to one of the biggest sports organisations in the world – FIFA.
Kudos to you Lesein, for being Paukwa spirited, being a beacon of hope for the environment, and doing your part wholeheartedly.
