Kenya is a relatively young country that managed to obtain its independence from Great Britain in 1964 and started its own way in the world political arena since then. However, the long-aspired freedom turned out to be a major challenge that the political leaders and the common public in Kenya were to face. The country turned out to be under-developed, the ecological situation was worsening together with the destructive deforestation and pollution processes that were commonly observed in its different regions, as well as the human rights, were not respected according to the level of democracy, industrialization, and overall integration that was witnessed in the context of the 20th century. In addition, the lack of educational resources that would help the government shape a new generation of citizens who would aspire for the country’s development and promotion in the world arena shaped the major set of problems Kenya experienced before and after independence.
These were the major issues that had to be addressed in the context of the newly acquired independence of Kenya, and it is reasonable to admit that the country needed strong innovators, leaders, and fighters for the progress that was extremely hard to achieve, taking into consideration the uneven distribution of population, 50% of the population living under the level of poverty according to the estimates of 2005 and other negative factors that shaped the modern profile of the country (Matiru and Stewart iv).
Speaking about this complicated period in Kenya’s existence, it is important to discuss Wangari Maathai – the outstanding activist, environmentalist, and researcher who cooperated with the government of Kenya on a set of issues seeking an immediate solution and also “persisted as a vocal critic of its corruption, and its environmental and human rights abuses” (Wangari Maathai: Timeline). Maathai was the first woman who obtained the highest scientific degree in Kenya and pursued her scientific career further on skillfully integrating it in the scope of her ecological fight for the preservation of Kenya and improvement of its social spheres.
Maathai was born in Kenya in 1940 and witnessed the period of colonial rule in Kenya, with lack of education and negligence towards the needs of poor people who were driven to despair because of lack of opportunities, severe social policy, and the inability to provide for their living to the least extent. She also witnessed the revolutionary period in the country that brought about thousands of deaths, and finally, she came into the independent period of Kenya’s existence together with the rest of the country. But even independence that was gained with so much effort and suffering could not disillusion her – Maathai understood that too much should be done to make her motherland a country that could provide sustainable living conditions for its nation.
The first drawback at which she aimed her efforts was the lack of educational institutions in Kenya, which prevented its nation from obtaining at least basic scientific knowledge and leaving the majority of the population uneducated and under-developed. In her memoir Wangari recollects the roots of the fight she showed even in her early years:
“It seems I convinced the priest that a school was needed for the children of the workers on settlers’ farms around Nakuru because… there were no schools in that area…Many children otherwise would not have gone to school” (“Unbowed” 70-71).
She was an exceptionally gifted girl who managed to win her scholarship and go to study in the USA – so she admits the privilege she was granted and regrets the fact that only dozens of people in Kenya obtain such possibilities, calling her privilege an American Dream (“Unbowed” 73). This is why much effort of hers was aimed at promoting education and individual development throughout Africa and Kenya in particular.
It was at the time Maathai started her work at the university at the Department of Zoology that she experienced the strong gender discrimination all women felt and understood that something had to be done to change the situation and to promote equality. She dedicated much attention to this issue in her memoir and told that she was terrified by the neglect men to express towards her rights and the rights of other women:
“It became important to ensure that female members of staff were accepted as equal members of the university’s academic staff and received the same benefits as their male colleagues” (“Independence: Kenya’s and My Own”).
Maathai’s fight for the rights of Kenyan women was substantiated by her profound success in the scientific and political sphere in Kenya – she was the first Kenyan woman to receive a Ph.D. in veterinary anatomy in Nairobi – “she then becomes the first female professor at the university and its first woman chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy” (Wangari Maathai: Timeline). Such a beneficial position enabled her to become an influential person in Kenya and to continue her fight for the equality of women in her country. It was through the ecological activity that she managed to strengthen the women’s place and role in the activities and life of Kenya and to improve their position in general.
It is also of major importance to note that Maathai was the initiator of the Green Belt Movement, the ecological movement that was created by her in 1977 – the reason for these activities was the growing concern Wangari felt about the destructive deforestation continuously taking place in Kenya due to the low standards of living of Kenyan population compared to fair prices offered by the European or American industrialists who came to cut down the forests for their own needs. It goes without saying that the overwhelming number of forest destruction was in general unauthorized, and barbarians came to the country of the third world without any regard to its ecological situation, knowing they could conduct their atrocities without being punished. The African continent experienced much cruelty and unauthorized invasion from the European colonizers, so Wangari Maathai was one of the first citizens of the renewed, independent Kenya who realized the threat of such unthoughtful treatment of the unique rainforests they possessed – she clearly understood there would be no future if deforestation continued in such tempos, so she created a small ecological movement group in 1977 that soon found many proponents (Jacques).
Maathai has always been distinguished by her natural wish to change the world and change people’s vision of the state of affairs in her country. This is why she pays so much credit to the education she received and the upbringing she got from her parents and relatives (“Unbowed” 70-71). In her memoir, she admits that the religious education she got gave her the motive to change everything. This is why she has created the Green Belt Movement and nowadays continues the struggle for peace and prosperity of the whole world, Kenya included. She is very wise in detecting the problems that led to the present situation within the country and the reasons for the tremendous devastation that industrial activities and processing wood bring about in Kenya, so she tries to show the ways that can solve the problem not on the local but on the global scale:
“Africa isn’t just asking for help; she has something on the table, too, in the way of carbon management: the Congo forest is a huge carbon sink. But international companies are logging there, as the government needs the money. If it had another revenue source, this would stop” (Jacques).
The environmental issues that cause constant trouble in African countries and prevent them from reaching higher living standards and overall life improvement are approached by Maathai in a logical and comprehensive way. In contrast to a huge number of politicians who try to solve each problem separately and as a result, do not solve any of them, Maathai accepts a systematic approach stating that
“You cannot get rid of poverty, improve quality of life and eliminate diseases without taking care of the environment, so you can have adequate food and clean drinking water” (Jacques).
It is not unusual that Maathai connects the extreme level of poverty that is witnessed in Kenya with some other issues that come to the fore in the context of the independent development of the country. Kenya in general is characterized as a country with a great potential of cultivating arable lands that count for 13% of the overall land of the country. The main problems citizens of Kenya face are climatic character, and the majority of the land is semi-arid (Cobb). Consequently, judging from the challenges for agriculture and water supplies, the problem of poverty becomes justified:
“Poverty and income disparities have deepened since independence, and 6.5 percent of Kenyans are categorized as the “extreme” poor, meaning they would be unable to feed themselves even if they spent every cent they had on food” (Cobb).
Thus, looking at the scope of problems Kenya faces nowadays and the overall attempt Maathai makes in the head of her Green Belt Movement to find the constructive and effective solution leave no questions on why she has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 (Jacques). More than that, while assessing the contribution of Maathai to the development and improvement of the internal social and environmental situation in Kenya it is necessary to take into consideration the Environmental Management and Coordination Act signed in 1999, the Water Act signed in 2002, and the enactment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Kenya from 1991. These regulations, alongside a set of other crucial environmental conventions under the guidance of the UN in Kenya, leave hopes for a better future for Kenyans without poverty and inequality (Matiru and Stewart iv).
References
Cobb, Charles Jr. Kenya: Small Steps Toward Solving Big Problems. 2008. Web.
Jacques, Adam. “Credo: Wangari Maathai”. The Independent. 2009. Web.
Maathai, Wangari. “Independence: Kenya’s and My Own”. The Globalist. 2007. Web.
Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed. Knopf. 2006.
Matiru, Violet, and Howard McDonald Stewart. Country Program Case Study: Kenya. 2007. Web.
Wangari Maathai: Timeline. 2009. Web.