UN remembers Wangari Maathai for her Nobel win, ten years on
Nobel Peace Prize winner, the late Prof Wangari Maathai. On who was their favourite public figure, eight per cent of the respondents mentioned Prof Maathai.
A tree was planted and a plaque unveiled Monday at United Nations headquarters in New York to mark the 10th anniversary of Prof Wangari Maathai's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kenya Deputy UN Ambassador Koki Mule Grignon presided at the event, which included a panel presentation honouring Prof Maathai, who died in 2011 at age 71.
“Her death was untimely but her legacy will endure, not just in her own country of Kenya but far beyond,” declared Amina Mohammed of Nigeria, a special advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Also speaking at the gathering was Mia MacDonald, board chair of the US branch of the Greenbelt Movement that Prof Maathai established in Kenya to promote environmental protection and women's rights.
Prof Maathai's success in helping empower Kenyan women was noted at the commemoration by Paulette Bethel, a representative of UN General Assembly President John Ashe.
An official with the New York City Parks Department told the gathering that Prof Maathai had been an inspiration for the city's current effort to plant one million trees.
Waweru Maathai, the son of the late Nobel laureate, also made remarks, as did her daughter Wanjira Maathai, who spoke via a video link from Nairobi.
