High school girls save trees by making paper using grass

The Kenya Science and Engineering Fair (KSEF) is proving to be a catalyst for innovation, empowering students to identify needs within their communities and develop solutions.

During the Rift Valley region KSEF competition held at AIC Moi girls' high school in Maralal town, two students from Nasokol girls' high school in West Pokot County have recognized the need to boost the government's initiative of planting 15 billion trees by 2032 to increase tree cover to 30 percent from the current 8.8 percent.

The form four students Nam Shavin and Camilla Lagat have innovated a way of making paper using buffalo grass, away from the traditional method of using trees and in the process addressing deforestation, environmental degradation and climate change.

The innovation under the chemistry category dubbed 'Shala paper from buffalo grass,' uses the readily available buffalo grass and Madeira vine leaves locally known as nderema.