She has really done us proud. She has been the single source of inspiration for all the Kenya NGOs and CBOs who have been involved in the implementation of Agenda 21 at the local level and a true Champion of the Rio Principles and the UN Human Rights Charter here in Kenya and in rest of African Countries. Her Campaign on Sustainable Development Issues has been relentless. On behalf of the Kenya NGOs and the Civil Society Organisations who since 1992 have been working together with Professor Wangari MAATHAI--we join in congratulating MAATHAI for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize 2004.
Kenyan deputy Environment Minister, Wangari MAATHAI has won the Nobel Peace Prize, cited for her work as leader of the Green Belt Movement that has planted more than 30 million trees across Africa.
Her win on Friday was unexpected as she was not among those in the broad speculation leading up to the announcement of the prize by the secretive committee. She is the seventh African to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. MAATHAI, 64, is also the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Previous winners from Africa include U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who shared the prize with the United Nations in 2001, and Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk from South Africa in 1993. "Thank you so much, I am so surprised," she told Norwegian state television. "I am absolutely overwhelmed and very emotionally charged, really. I did not expect this." "The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that," she said, starting to cry.
"I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance." With a record 194 nominations, the committee had a broad field to choose from. "As a country we're greatly honored. This is a great moment in Kenyan history. To us this shows that what Wangari MAATHAI has been doing here has been recognized. We're very proud of her and she deserves all the credit," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said.
Born in April 1940, MAATHAI was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, getting a degree in biological sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, in 1964. She has been internationally recognized for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. It was her campaign against land grabbing and rapacious allocation of forest land that caught the limelight recently. She and the Green Belt Movement have received numerous awards, such as The Sophie Prize, The Petra Kelly Prize for Environment, Arbor Day Foundation's J. Sterling Morton Award and the Conservation Scientist Award, all in 2004, the WANGO Environment Award (2003), Outstanding Vision and Commitment Award (2002) and the Excellence Award from the Kenyan Community Abroad (2001). The Nobel Peace Prize, which includes 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1.3 million, euro1.06 million), is always presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of its founder, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. The peace prize is awarded in Oslo, and the other Nobel prizes are presented in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
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