Wangari Maathai - R.I.P (photo: takingrootfilm.com)
Kenya's Nobel laureate and conservation heroine Professor Wangari Muta Maathai (aged 71), has died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment.
"It is with great sadness that the Green Belt Movement announces the passing of its founder and chair, Professor Wangari Muta Maathai, after a long illness bravely borne," her organization said.
The environmentalist, activist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10pm on Sunday (September 25th, 2011), according to officials at her Green Belt Movement organisation.
She was born on 1 April 1940 in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District in Kenya. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
Prof. Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting conservation, women's rights and transparent government - the first African woman to get the award.
She was elected as a Member of the Kenyan Parliament in 2002 and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.
In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees which has planted 20-30 million trees in Africa., environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”
The organisation also campaigned on education, nutrition and other issues important to women.
Ms Maathai had been arrested several times for campaigning against deforestation in Africa
"It is with great sadness that the Green Belt Movement announces the passing of its founder and chair, Professor Wangari Muta Maathai, after a long illness bravely borne," her organization said.
The environmentalist, activist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10pm on Sunday (September 25th, 2011), according to officials at her Green Belt Movement organisation.
She was born on 1 April 1940 in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District in Kenya. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
Prof. Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting conservation, women's rights and transparent government - the first African woman to get the award.
She was elected as a Member of the Kenyan Parliament in 2002 and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.
In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees which has planted 20-30 million trees in Africa., environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”
The organisation also campaigned on education, nutrition and other issues important to women.
Ms Maathai had been arrested several times for campaigning against deforestation in Africa
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