Nobel Laureate Prof Wangari Maathai

The staff and management of  The African Executive magazine express their heartfelt condolences to the family and friends  of Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai, a world reknown academician, environmentalist  and political activist who passed on  on 25th September, 2011.

James Shikwati (CEO, The African Executive) was honoured to work with the Late Prof. Wangari Maathai to run the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOC) between 2005-2007.

Prof. Maathai was not only visionary but also keen to encourage Africa's civil society connect with the African Union. Though gone in Spirit, Prof Maathai is very much alive with us through her great work.

Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of British-controlled Kenya on 1 April 1940.

Maathai received a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College), in Atchison, Kansas. At Mount St. Scholastica, she majored in biology, with minors in chemistry and German.After receiving her bachelor of science degree in 1964, she was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh to study for a master's degree in biology. Her graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh were funded by the Africa-America Institute.During her studies in Pittsburgh, Maathai first experienced environmental restoration, as environmentalists in the city pushed to rid the city of air pollution. In January 1966, Maathai completed her studies at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a Master of Science in Biological Sciences, and was appointed to a position as research assistant to a professor of zoology at University College of Nairobi.

In April 1966, she met Mwangi Mathai, another Kenyan who had studied in America, who would later become her husband until 1977.

In 1971, she became the first Eastern African woman to receive a Ph.D., when she was granted a Doctorate of Anatomy from the University College of Nairobi, which became the University of Nairobi the following year.

Maathai was involved in a number of civic organizations in the early 1970s. She director of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Red Cross Society; member of the Kenya Association of University Women; Chair of  the Environment Liaison Centre in and Chair of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK).

On 5 June 1977, marking World Environment Day, the NCWK marched in a procession from Kenyatta International Conference Centre in downtown Nairobi to Kamukunji park on the outskirts of the city where they planted seven trees in honor of historical community leaders. This was the first "Green Belt" planted by what became the Green Belt Movement.

In the course of her work through the NCWK, she was approached by Wilhelm Elsrud, executive director of the Norwegian Forestry Society. He wished to partner with the Green Belt Movement and offered her the position of coordinator. Employed again, Maathai poured her efforts into the Green Belt Movement. Along with the partnership for the Norwegian Forestry Society, the movement had also received "seed money" from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women. These funds allowed for the expansion of the movement, for hiring additional employees to oversee the operations, and for continuing to pay a small stipend to the women who planted seedlings throughout the country. It also allowed her to refine the operations of the movement, paying a small stipend to the women's husbands and sons who were literate and able to keep accurate records of seedlings planted.

In October 1989, Maathai learned of a plan to construct the 60-story Kenya Times Media Trust Complex in Uhuru Park. The complex was intended to house the headquarters of KANU, the Kenya Times newspaper, a trading center, offices, an auditorium, galleries, shopping malls, and parking space for two thousand cars. The plan also included a large statue of President arap Moi. She wrote many letters in protest.

Despite Maathai's protests, as well as popular protest growing throughout the city, ground was broken at Uhuru Park for construction of the complex on 15 November 1989. Her protests, the government's response, and the media coverage it garnered led foreign investors to cancel the project in January 1990.

On 28 February 1992, while released on bail, Maathai and others took part in a hunger strike in a corner of Uruhu Park, which they labeled Freedom Corner, to pressure the government to release political prisoners. After four days of the hunger strike, on March 3, 1992, the police forcibly removed the protestors. When the political prisoners were not released, the protestors, mostly mothers of those in prison, moved their protest to All Saints Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican Archbishop in Kenya, across from Uhuru Park. The protest there continued, with Maathai contributing frequently, until early 1993, when the prisoners were finally released.

In 1991 she received the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco and the Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership in London. CNN aired a three-minute segment concerning the Goldman prize, but when it aired in Kenya, that segment had been edited out.

During the first multi-party election of Kenya, in 1992, Maathai strove to unite the opposition and promote free and fair elections in Kenya. Maathai believed that a fractured opposition would lead to KANU retaining control of the country, so  she help form the Middle Ground Group in an effort to unite the opposition. Maathai was chosen to serve as its chairperson. Despite their efforts, the opposition did not unite, and the ruling KANU party used intimidation and state-held media to win the election, retaining control of parliament.

Maathai traveled to Scotland to receive the Edinburgh Medal in April 1993. In May she traveled to Chicago to receive the Jane Addams International Women's Leadership Award.

In 1998, Maathai learned of a government plan to privatize large areas of public land in the Karura Forest, just outside Nairobi, and give it to political supporters. Maathai protested against the privatization through letters to the government and the press. On 8 January 1999, a group of protesters including Maathai, six opposition MPs, journalists, international observers, and Green Belt members and supporters were attacked and injured, including Maathai, four MPs, some of the journalists, and German environmentalists. The event provoked international outrage. Student protests broke out throughout Nairobi, and some of these groups were violently broken up by the police. Protests continued until 16 August 1999, when the president announced that he was banning all allocation of public land.

Maathai campaigned for parliament in the 2002 elections, this time as a candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition, the umbrella organization which finally united the opposition. On 27 December 2002, the Rainbow Coalition defeated the ruling party Kenya African National Union, and in her constituency Maathai won with an overwhelming 98% of the vote. In January 2003, she was appointed Assistant Minister in the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources and served in that capacity until November 2005. She founded the Mazingira Green Party of Kenya in 2003 to allow candidates to run on a platform of conservation as embodied by the Green Belt Movement. It is a member of the Federation of Green Parties of Africa and the Global Greens.

On 8 October 2004, Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. She became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the prize.

Controversy arose after the announcement of the Nobel award when it was alleged that Maathai had claimed HIV/AIDS was "deliberately created by Western scientists to decimate the African population."

On 28 March 2005, she was elected the first president of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council and was appointed a goodwill ambassador for an initiative aimed at protecting the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem. In 2006 she was one of the eight flagbearers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Also on 21 May 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by and gave the commencement address at Connecticut College. She supported the International Year of Deserts and Desertification program. In November 2006, she spearheaded the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign. Maathai was one of the founders of The Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Six women representing North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa decided to bring together their experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's Initiative to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights around the world.

In June 2009, Maathai was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.

By the time of  her passing on, Maathai was serving on the Eminent Advisory Board of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).