A few day ago we went to listen to Wangari Maathai speak at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
I must admit before I went there I had preconceived notions of who
Wangari Maathai was. I remember in the late 80s and early 90s seeing
Maathai's picture in the paper and thinking who is this eccentric
tree-hugger who would die to save a tree? Many politicians and news
people, including President Moi, considered her insane and had no qualms about
saying this openly, but as Elizabeth Browning said "Since when was
genius found respectable?".
There may be a method to her madness after
all.
Maathai’s initial inclination was not towards politics, but toward community development. In the 1970s she became the first woman in East Africa to earn a Ph.D and then became Dean of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Nairobi. She also started the Green Belt Movement (GBM) which was an NGO aimed at tackling environmental issues from a grassroots level. In the beginning she focused on educating women in rural areas on the benefits of environmental conservation – especially regarding the arable and pastoral communities these women came from. They would have regular meetings to discuss new and better ways to combat deforestation and soil erosion and carry out tree planting exercises. The GMB turned decisively pro-democracy when Moi's government banned unlicensed meetings of more than 9 people. They then started fighting for open governance, inclusive of human rights and the rule of law as well as the environmental conservation.
Maathai’s most high profile fights were against the Uhuru Park Skyscraper and the plan to giving portions of Karura Forest to private developers that pitted her squarely against the Moi government at great risk to her person. She was jailed several times and physically injured like the time she wound up in hospital when at Karura hired thugs pounced on her.
She got some vindication for her blood and sweat when she was nominated and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious of awards any intellectual can hope to receive today and I have always respected Maathai for getting one. I know the Nobel Committee is a very deliberative body and the nomination and selection process is long and rigorous, but I had not been completely convinced as to why a tree-planter deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. (Her acceptance speech here.) That is until I took a deeper look at Professor Maathai and her work.
Maathai’s political philosophy revolves around the idea of valuing life in all its forms above everything else on earth and rethinking the concept of security to include sustainable management of resources to protect and sustain this life. In her speech she urged that we have to challenge our consciousness on the need to appreciate all life saying there cannot be peace if there are violations of life. If we degrade the resources that sustain our lives then peace and welfare will be threatened. She said the scramble for recourses was characteristic of all small and large armed conflicts and that resources have to be shared equitably through a democratic system of governance to extend global peace.
In her view the primary function of government should be to manage common resources needed for life. These resources belong to every citizen including future generations.
This attitude and approach would go a long way towards solving some of Kenya’s most complex issues. It is easy to see how her philosophy could address issues from land reform and the environment to corruption and poverty. I’m not suggesting she would fix any of these problems single handedly, but changing the attitudes of our politicians has to be the first step towards the Kenya we want.
Her “strong-mindedness” and defiance towards the powers that be have left her isolated from the Kenyan political mainstream, which is a good thing considering the political climate in parliament where politicians are quick to point at the twigs in each other’s eyes. She has no real political allies because she is generally considered rogue and untetherable. Is this not what a lot of Kenyans have been looking for? A politician who is not part of the system, old or new, imagine that!
She sites the large amount of propaganda and disinformation generated by our politicians as a problem,but calls for personal responsibility saying everybody who is pointing fingers at the government should also realize that in some way they may also be part of the problem. This reminds me of a time when I was driving with a friend of mine outside Nairobi and got pulled over for speeding. My friend quickly offered the policeman 100 shilling which he took and let us go. My friend then went on a 30 minute tirade of how corrupt Kenyan police were, without missing a beat! What we choose to do as individuals is ultimately more important than what the central government does. Look at what Maathai almost single handedly did for the Kenyan environment (and even the world now), it started with a single personal choice to take a stand for what she believed.
I doubt many people could credibly challenge her commitment to Kenya. On winning the Nobel Prize, she was offered many speaking opportunities at foreign institutions which would have made her a lot of money, instead she chose to first focus on serving her constituents. She judges speaking offers equally be they from Nyalgunga Primary School or Harvard. She may have possibly given more blood for Kenya than any current elected official in Parliament. She deserve a second look.
“It took 10 years to convince the opposition to unite against the government, in the new elections we should try to see if we can do better than before.” Wangari Maathai
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As a politician, she has added little to bring any sanity to the confused kenyan political scene, and not even her refusal to take up a junior ministerial position helped her. Many asked if Wangari should have been made the minister for trees following her nobel prize, and I held the view that she actually would have served the environment better outside of politics and government.
Wangari is needed by the world more than Kenyans need her politically. She can change the world - but not as president of Kenya!