Maathai: A global heroine less glorified at home

By Stephen Makabila

Prophets are never revered on home soil. No Kenyan attests to this better than former Tetu MP Prof Wangari Maathai.

Her winning of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize makes her one of the greatest women achievers in Africa. She joined the elite club of Nelson Mandela, Mother Tereza, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev. US President Barack Obama is the latest entrant to the club.

Prof Wangari Maathai at a past political rally. [PHOTOS: FILE/STANDARD]

Nonetheless, the ball game has been different for Maathai locally. Just three years on after winning the coveted prize, she was kicked out by her constituents as Tetu MP in Nyeri.

That she was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate and the fact that she later became the first African woman to bag the coveted Nobel prize, Maathai is in a class of her own.

She is internationally recognised for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation.

Presidential ambitions

After many years of fighting for environmental conservation through the Green Belt Movement (GBM), she plunged into politics in 2002 and won the Tetu parliamentaty seat.

In 1997, she vied for presidency but did not make much of an impression.

President Kibaki appointed her an Assistant Minister for Environment in the Narc Coalition Government after her first elective position in 2002.

Earlier on at the advent of multi-party politics in early 1990s, Maathai tried in vain to save the original Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford) from splitting through her Middle Ground Movement.

The movement attempted to re-unite Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Kenneth Matiba. Ford later split into Ford-Kenya and Ford-Asili.

During the troubled days of the Narc coalition, Maathai also attempted to strike a compromise but her efforts were ignored.

The country did little to give her the heroic status she deserved, but the world has done it, as she remains glorified around the globe.

Maathai has addressed UN sessions on several occasions and spoken on behalf of women at special sessions of the General Assembly for the five-year review of the Earth Summit.

She and GBM have received numerous awards such as The Sophie Prize (2004), The Petra Kelly Prize for Environment (2004), The Conservation Scientist Award (2004), J Sterling Morton Award (2004), Wango Environment Award (2003), Outstanding Vision and Commitment Award (2002), Excellence Award from the Kenyan Community Abroad (2001), and the Golden Ark Award (1994).

Maathai was also listed on Unep’s Global 500 Hall of Fame and named one of the 100 heroines.

Academics record

She was born in Nyeri in 1940 and obtained a degree in biological sciences from Mount St Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, in the US in 1964.

She subsequently earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in US (1966). She pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, obtaining a PhD in 1971 from the latter where she also taught veterinary anatomy.

She became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977, respectively. In both cases, she was the first woman to attain those positions in the region.

Through the Green Belt Movement she has assisted women in planting millions of trees on their farms and on school and church compounds.

She serves on the boards of several organisations, including the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament, The Jane Goodall Institute and Women and Environment Development Organisation (Wedo).

She also serves on the boards of the World Learning for International Development, Green Cross International, Environment Liaison Centre International, the World-Wide Network of Women in Environmental Work and National Council of Women of Kenya.