The death of Nobel Laureate and environmental activist Professor Wangari Maathai has engulfed Kenya with communal grief. She died at 71 years of age and was an iconic Kenyan representative to the world. Kenya has lost one of its caring and protective mothers. After such hard work spanning decades in environmental, political and gender advocacy it is now a time to rest for this Kenyan heroine and mother after a worthy purposeful cause in life.

Notably quiet during this time is former President Daniel arap Moi, who Wangari Maathai made her career out of. He at one moment described Wangari Maathai as a mad woman. She was actually "mad" about Moi's government encroachment of water catchment areas and wanton destruction of the environment.

Were it not for her and other activists, Karura forest and Uhuru Park would now be a concrete jungle. She was vocal about the destruction of indigenous forests such as the Aberdares and the Mau ranges. She was a headache to the Moi government especially during the standoff and stripping with the mothers of Moi's government political prisoners at Freedom corner at the edge of Uhuru park. She was as much a second political liberation activist as she was in the environment circles.

Through her Greenbelt Movement she made a mark of raising the levels of reforestation across the country. Contrary to the current campaigns of planting trees, Wangari Maathai was more than just a tree planter. She ensured that there was a system of nurturing these trees to maturity. She achieved this by enlisting the support of women in the grassroots to plant trees in their localities and take care of them. She also advocated for the planting of indigenous trees and not just planting any other tree.

Last year her endorsement was being sought for the use of eco friendly eco-Jeneza coffins for burial instead of the timber-made coffins. Eco-Jeneza coffins are made from recycled paper and have plastic handles on the side, with their key selling point being environmental friendliness. "Our product will save thousands of trees being cut each year to make wooden coffins," says EAPI Managing Director Cor Roest during the launch recently. For her love of trees, environmental pundits will be waiting to see how Wangari Maathai will be buried, or did she prefer cremation?

Probably the next level of public debate on her life will be how best Kenyans will remember her. There are already tree planting campaigns being organized. Other suggestions include renaming Thika road to Wangari Maathai Highway. However, using her Nobel Peace Prize money Wangari was in the process of setting up a Wangari Maathai Centre in partnership with the University of Nairobi. She was also a staunch advocate of each human being doing his/her part and being themselves.

To read Wangari Maathai's last public interview by Drum Magazine in July 2011 visit this site -
http://www.kenyanmagazines.com/prof-wangari-mathai-nobel-laureate-green-belt-movement/

Rest in Peace Wangari Maathai

Archbishop Ndingi found like-minded allies in the person of Maina Kiai, who was to become the chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights at the turn of the decade and Prof Wangari Maathai, who was later to be awarded the Nobel Prize for her fight against social injustice.

Prof Maathai, the environmentalist-cum politician, was one of the most vocal politicians at the time and one who was constantly in the government's bad books. The government could not condone any occasion where Prof Maathai was present or where she was addressing people. Her pairing up with Ndingi was particularly seen as hair-raising and the government constantly kept her in check.

On March 3,1993, there was a meeting to discuss the rehabilitation of the displaced people at the hall of Christ the King Cathedral in Nakuru and Prof Maathai was invited.

The embassies of Canada, Germany and Netherlands had also sent representatives to give views
on how best to resettle the people. There were many people gathered at the gate of the cathedral.

As the bishop and the professor walked from the bishop's office to the cathedral, they were met
by an astonishing sight.

The cathedral had been cordoned off. There were General Service Unit (GSU) and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) personnel all around. The police were fully armed, "as if they were at war" and they were stopping people from entering the compound. Priests were required to identify themselves before they could be allowed entry into their church. Though they put up a strong resistance, the police were not in any mood to compromise. They stopped the meeting but the publicity it gained was more than enough to arouse the sensibilities of the nation as to what was going on in the Rift Valley.

Wangari's crusade did not have the benefit of awe and fear as that of the bishop. She was a marked person in a way that the bishop was not. The bishop, however, lent her every kind of support. Her relentless battle with the government had started a little earlier when she mounted a serious campaign against the construction of Kenya Times Tower (KIT) in Uhuru Park.

Wangari's view was that the construction of the complex would ruin the city and turn it into a concrete jungle. Almost single handedly, she waged a war against the development, drawing the anger and earning quite a number of enemies but also admirers.

Members of the ruling party, Kanu, were never comfortable with her. They railed, and threatened her so many times that she was in constant fear for her life; she was constantly in need of protection.

Together with another crusader, Fr Ndikaru wa Teresia who had also waged an environmental crusade against a company called Kel Chemicals in Thika, they were people on the run.

Kel Chemicals was emitting harmful gases into the environment; endangering the lives of those living in the surrounding.

In 1992, Wangari was at the peak of her crusade. This was also the time that her life was totally threatened. She was followed everywhere and was never sure of where she would be the following day. Where could she hide from the seeming omnipresence of security people? As they say, it is in the middle of danger that those who are threatened find the best refuge.

Ndingi even though a marked man, arranged to house Wangari.

How Maathai teamed up with Ndingi to fight for the rights of victims of ethnic cleansing in R. Valley

On March 2,1993, he arranged with Fr Ndikaru wa Teresia and Fr Francis Mirango to assist the professor go into hiding in Nakuru. This was a risky and almost impossible mission. Every one knew Wangari and the route to Nakuru was full of roadblocks.

Besides, Fr Ndikaru himself was also a marked man. But this was a time to take risks and it was better to try out the mission than wait and get caught unawares.

Fr Ndikaru was to meet Wangari at Uthiru, 10 kilometres from the city. The location was ideal because the place was teeming with people. No one seemed to notice a sickly looking lady, dejected to the core, wearing a buibui and gazing into nothingness as if she had lost all hope of living. Those who saw her must have dismissed her as another Somali lady probably looking for her kin in the densely populated and cosmopolitan suburb.

Fr Ndikaru arrived at 9.35am. The scrawny lady recognised the white Toyota Corolla car, registration KAA 203G and ambled towards it. She opened the door and got onto the back, slumping down like a patient. The car started off at a steady speed. No suspicions aroused, it got onto the highway and started the 140 kilometre journey to Nakuru.

At Kamandura-Limuru road, they came across the first road block. The car slowed down, the police peered in and saw a Somali lady. They waved the vehicle on. The next road-block was at Delamere in Naivasha. The police were not interested in a ragged looking man wearing a cap and a Somali lady seated at the back. They probably thought it was a taxi, so they waved it on.

But in Gilgil, tougher luck was awaiting them. The people manning the road-block were not regular police but GSU personnel. These would be more difficult to fool than the others. They waved down the vehicle. At this point the occupants of the vehicle said a prayer in Kikuyu, "Mwathani utugitire na utuiguire tha" (God protect us and have mercy on us).

"Where are you going?" a burly GSU man asked in a rude and abrasive voice, all the time training his eyes into the vehicle and the figure slumped at the back. Fr Ndikaru thought that the officer would recognise Wangari and his heart raced with terror.

He was cold and full of fear. "I have never felt that kind of fear in my life," he was to later say. He was nearly responding when the officer cut in; "Kwani Mama ni Mgonjwa?" (Is the old lady sick?) "Eee ni mgonjwa sana" (yes, she is very sick). It was a holy lie and "God would forgive me," Fr Ndikaru recalled.

"Haya basi kimbia haraka umpeleke hospitali pale Gilgil (then hurry and take her to hospital in Gilgil).

"That was the Holy Spirit at work," Fr Ndikaru told Maathai who also could not see it any other way.