The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Mrs. Wangari Maathai, has died, reports from Kenya, her home country, said early today.
Maathai died last night in Nairobi, the Kenya’s capital after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71.
Her death was confirmed by Green Belt Movement, the environmental organisation she founded, the Associated Press reported.
One of Kenya’s most recognisable women, Maathai won the Nobel in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism.
She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, where over 30 years she mobilised poor women to plant 30 million trees.
Edward Wageni, that group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai was in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said.
In recognising Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime in Kenya and that her “unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression.”
Africa does not know what a pearl has lost!!! Because she never run for presidency no one know who she is but she is better than all those who run for those posts and may be got or did not get them! Mama Africa more than that mama world because your contribution as for the whole world and especially women who are oppressed.
ReplyDeleteShame up on you MOI for fighiting this hero you should be in the hague before the rest.
Rip my sister, Aunt and comrade. Aluta Continua Mapambano bado yanaendelea.