As Kajiado County, we are proud to have hosted this year’s “World Bee Day” with a vibrant 3-day event at Ildamat Stadium in Kajiado Central Sub-County. This special day is dedicated to celebrating and appreciating the invaluable contributions of bees to humanity and the environment.
The decision to mark World Bee Day follows a United Nations General Assembly resolution on December 20th, 2017, declaring that starting from 2018, May 20th of each year would be celebrated as World Bee Day.
Kenya’s journey of celebrating World Bee Day began in 2018 in West Pokot County, followed by Nairobi County in 2019, Kitui County in 2021, Nakuru County in 2022, and Baringo County in 2023. This year, we were honoured to have Hon. Jonathan Mueke, Principal Secretary of the State Department of Livestock Development, preside over the final day of our celebrations.
The theme for this year’s World Bee Day, “Bee Engaged with Youth,” aligns perfectly with our county focus on empowering women, youth, and people living with disabilities—groups most vulnerable to climate change.
Kajiado County holds great potential for honey production. We are mobilising resources to enhance the bee value chain, making beekeeping a viable source of income and nutrition. Our climate-proof environment initiative aims to restore rangelands and increase tree cover, creating a favourable environment for beekeeping.
In partnership with the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP), we have conducted SACCOs/FPOs mapping and identified nine (9) beekeeping SACCOs ready to implement this value chain out of the 96 mapped in the county.
During the event, we proudly launched the Kajiado Beekeeping Cooperative Society, an umbrella body to unite all Kajiado beekeepers and strengthen our bee value chain. Additionally, we launched the Kajiado County Beekeeping Strategy, developed in partnership with WWF, as part of our World Bee Day celebrations.
Let’s continue to work together to promote and protect our precious bees!
