Wangari Maathai is Dead – Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls

A Personal Memory of Wangari Maathai by Mwalimu Mati

A week ago I was asked by a friend in the United Nations system to try and find
Prof. Wangari Maathai because they were unable to.  My task was to communicate
to her that on October 31st 2011, the United Nations Population Fund wished to
have her attend a special ceremony of seven world leaders (including heads and
past heads of governments and states) to commemorate the event of the global
human population crossing the 7 billion person mark.  Wangari Maathai’s office
did not let on, but it is now apparent that she was not going to make that date
in New York.  This morning I woke to the sad news of her passage.

This afternoon I watched an impassioned Wangari Maathai in a recorded interview
with one of Kenya’s foremost interviewers Jeff Koinange on K24 TV where she
urged action for conservation and indeed immediate replanting of our forests.
In particular she was demanding the reclaiming of the Mau Forests Complex and
the eviction of such as Daniel Arap Moi – and his Kiptagich Tea Farm.

It reminded me that one of my formative career experiences was working, in 1989,
for the Public Law Institute which represented her in her famous legal battle
against the Kenya Times Media Trust – KANU – and Robert Maxwell – who
planned a 60 storey skyscraper as headquarters for KANU and its then propaganda
outfit the Kenya Times Media Trust.  We lost.  She was thrown out of court
within a week for lack of locus standi – and I learnt from her lawyer Oki Ooko
Ombaka the dictum “sometimes you win in losing”.  Wangari Maathai won.  The
financiers for Arap Moi’s USD 200 million project scampered for safety......

Read the full tribute at  http://blog.marsgroupkenya.org/?p=2593

Mars Group Kenya
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