Wangari Maathai's final journey

The world descended on Nairobi’s Uhuru Park Saturday to mourn renown environmentalist and 2004 Nobel laureate Prof Wangari Maathai.

Diplomats, heads of international organisations, and government representatives flew into Nairobi for the final send-off of Kenya’s conservation legend.

The funeral was held at the grounds, which Prof Maathai stopped the Moi government from constructing a 60-storey skyscraper, in one of her most notable battles to protect the environment.

The clergy, in their prayers termed her as “malkia wa mazingira” (queen of the environment).

The tributes came in droves with the Norwegian ambassador in Kenya, Per Ludvig Magnus, describing the late Prof Maathai as “a great and remarkable woman, gifted, visionary and humble".

The envoy termed the late conservationist as an “outstanding African woman with strong ethics and strong integrity”.

“In my country Norway, we say, that nobody can become a prophet in their own country, but Wangari Maathai certainly did,” said Mr Magnus, in whose country the Nobel committee is domiciled.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also paid his tribute through the Director-General, at the Nairobi Office Ms Sahle-Work Zewde.

Kenya’s President Kibaki, Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete (through Dr Anna Tibaijuka), Kenya’s Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, and Prime Minister Raila Odinga all paid their tributes to Kenya’s fallen daughter.

“Besides being a woman of great courage and tenacity, the late Prof Wangari Maathai demonstrated her example of selfless service to the nation,” said President Kibaki. He added that the late Prof Maathai was “Kenya’s most outstanding champion of environmental sustainability”.

The Head of State added that the best way for Kenya to remember her was to keep on with the late professor’s work of planting trees and conserving the use of nature’s vast resources so that future generations get to enjoy the sweetness of the environment.

The Vice President termed the fallen Nobel laureate as a “true trailblazer” and prayed that “her smile and love” for conservation will make the world protect nature.

Mr Musyoka recalled a joke that did rounds in the Cabinet following Prof Maathai’s Nobel win, in which ministers said “she was the only assistant minister who had become more famous than the minister himself.” Then (back in 2004), Prof Maathai was an environment assistant minister.

Dr Anna Tibaijuka, who worked closely with Prof Maathai, while she served as the head of the UN-Habitat as “undoubtedly, Africa’s most outstanding daughter”.

“If I was successful here, it was because she was my friend, sister, and role model,” a somber Dr Tibaijuka said.

On his part, Mr Odinga said he was glad to have worked with the late professor in planting trees in the political hot-potato that was the Mau Forest. The reclamation of Mau Forest, one of Kenya’s water towers remains a priority for the Kenyan government.

“We’re happy that the rest of the world has joined us in paying tribute to her,” said Mr Odinga.

The event was attended by Kenyan Cabinet ministers, Prof Wangari’s  colleagues in the National Council of Women of Kenya –Dr Eddah Gachukia and Prof Wanjiku Kabira--; the Chief of Defence Forces General Julius Karangi among others.

After the brief ceremony, the cortege left for the Kariokor Crematorium where Prof Maathai was cremated in fulfilment of her last wishes.

After her cremation, which was attended by family members only, Prof Maathai was interred in an area known as the Democratic Space within the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi’s Kabete campus.