Michael Mundia Kamau P

Michael Mundia Kamau P.O. Box 58972 00200 City Square Nairobi Kenya 11th October 2004 PROFESSOR (MAMA) WANGARI MAATHAI The award of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize to Kenyan environmentalist Professor Wangari Maathai is astoundingly pleasant and inspiring news in a nation continually sliding into decline. The sheer significance, honour and unexpectedness of the prestigious award is still yet to register in a country that has become resigned to mediocrity. For a country that is continually complaining about being discriminated against, we owe huge gratitude to the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation for bestowing this tremendous honour on our struggling and often ridiculed country. As we bask in the glory of Professor Mathaai’s accomplishment, we must also be true to Professor Mathaai and ourselves and ask for her forgiveness for failing to support her in her cause and quest for the past 40 years. Professor Mathaai has been the subject of torment, persecution, ridicule and harassment for her beliefs, for over 40 years now. It’s no wonder that she in the first instance passed her gratitude to her three children Waweru, Wanjira and Muta, for standing by her throughout those turbulent times. She was unceremoniously bundled out of her job at the University of Nairobi for her defiant stand, with no support forthcoming from an uncaring society. When the KANU regime vilified her 15 years ago for opposing the construction of the 60 storey Kenya Times Media Trust sky scraper on the grounds of Uhuru park, the society sat back and sheepishly laughed at the insults that were directed at her, typical of behaviour in this country. Her fight for the release of political prisoners in 1992, led to the brutal affront of mothers of the political prisoners and Professor Maathai at Nairobi’s Uhuru park. Many at the time felt that Professor Maathai was overstepping her bounds, sympathising minimally and criticising maximally. It is against this backdrop that Professor Maathai has gained distinguished global recognition for her efforts. To her credit, Professor Maathai did not abandon her country in haste, greed, vanity and cowardice, and stayed on and fought. The Nobel Peace Prize Foundation must have taken this into consideration because like James Chaney, the courageous African-American civil rights activist who died in 1964, she declared “I aint running”, for all to hear and see. Professor Mathaai belongs to a rare and severely depleted disposition and school of thought in Kenya, and in this we must draw strength and inspiration. In many ways, the harshest battles of her life are only just about to begin, given the distinguished platform that she now stands on, and given the apathy of the people she lives amongst and is a part of. Environmental degradation in Kenya is much more prevalent than environmental conservation. We have no excuse whatsoever for this because we have adequate resources, adequate education, adequate skills and adequate exposure. Driven by vanity and short-sightedness, a nation has clogged itself into urban centres and wrecked havoc by flouting bylaws with impunity and causing environmental pollution and degradation. The Nairobi river today is much less a river than it is a flow of muck. Many of the professionals now showering praise on Professor Mathaai and who should know better, have contributed to this sordid state of affairs through the construction and support of numerous extra-legal structures, permanent and semi-permanent. Leaders and politicians have made the situation worse by not providing effective leadership. Whatever reasons that may be fronted for the ongoing bickering in the ruling NARC coalition, none can make up for the deep sense of loss and betrayal that the people feel. This is the Kenya that Professor (Mama) Wangari Maathai brings her 2004 Nobel Peace Prize to. It is regrettable that the situation in the country has and will tremendously dilute the high prestige of her award. From this point on, the more she pushes her agenda, the more it will be met with ridicule, scorn and resistance, by a people who do not know who they are, what they want and where they want to go. Intense petulant jealousies and biases will also stand in her way and slow down her cause. Professor Maathai is also not likely to receive the spectacular ticker tape reception that Charles Lindbergh got after flying solo non-stop across the Atlantic in 1927, even though the two share the distinction of having accomplished their tasks solo. This should not however deter those who still care, in a nation in a deep crisis. Appropriately and expectedly, Professor Maathai has expressed her wish that people should celebrate her award by planting trees across the country. We should take this further and celebrate her accomplishment by growing the character, talent, strength, resolve, passion and expertise that has characterised Professor Maathai’s life over the past 40 years. This country needs to rapidly transform itself into the mould of Professor Mathaai’s way of thinking and foresight, for it to survive. If this is asking for too much, then we had better spare Professor (Mama) Wangari Maathai our false pretentious congratulatory messages, and sit back and mock her as we always have. Michael Mundia Kamau