THE DEMISE OF PEACE LAUREATE PROF. WANGARI MUTA MAATHAI


Prof Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first female Nobel Peace Prize laureate and conservation heroine, has died in Nairobi after a long battle with cancer aged 71 years.

The environmentalist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10pm on Sunday 25th September 2011, officials at her Greenbelt Movement organization stated.

Prof Wangari Maathai was born 1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011 and will be remembered for her courage and tenacity in seeking social justice, conservation, democracy and corruption.

The environmentalist  was in 2002 elected the Member of Parliament for Tetu, Nyeri District and served as an Assistant Minister in President Kibaki’s first government.

Known for her love for trees, Prof Maathai was in 2004 awarded the Nobel peace prize for her conservation efforts.

She was also a celebrated academic having been the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree.

PRESIDENT MWAI KIBAKI

President Mwai Kibaki, “It is with a deep sense of sadness and sorrow that I learnt of the death of Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai. On behalf of the government and people of Kenya and on my own behalf I send you this message of sympathy, at this time when we mourn a global icon that has left an indelible mark in the world of environmental conservation.

“With the passing on of Professor Maathai, the country and the world has not only lost a renowned environmentalist and but also a great human rights crusader,” said a dispatch from President Kibaki’s press service.

 

PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA

US President Barrack Obama said he learnt the        passing of Maathai with great sadness and added that  the world mourns with Kenyans and celebrates the  extraordinary life of a remarkable woman who  devoted her life to peacefully protecting what she    called “our common home and future.” “On behalf of all   Americans, Michelle and I send our deepest    condolences to Prof Maathai’s family and the people of   Kenya at this difficult time,”

 

KOFI ANAN

Kofi Anan. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said Prof Maathai would forever be celebrated and honoured.

PRIME MINISTER RAILA ODINGA

Prime Minister Raila Odinga said: “I join Kenyans and friends of Kenya in mourning the passing on of this hero of our national struggles. Hers has been heroism easily recognised locally and abroad, one attained in her life time and therefore not left to historians to interpret.”

Prof Maathai got her degree in biological sciences from Mount St Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas in 1964 before earning a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh two years later.

Her official profile says that she later pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi (UoN), obtaining a Ph.D in 1971 from the UoN where she also taught veterinary anatomy. She became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977 respectively.