"In degrading the environment, we degrade ourselves" - Prof. Wangari Maathai
This morning I woke up to find the news of the passing of the First African Woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize being aired on Network Africa, the BBC World Service Breakfast show. I was stunned, and at the same time, I was filled with a sense of gratitude that I lived in the lifetime of such a great woman. One day I shall tell Nicole that the main difference between Prof. Maathai and other mortal women was one, she dared to break barriers.
She dared to earn a PhD. She dared to stand up to her husband, who divorced her for being "unable to control her", but she fought him for the right to keep his surname setting a precedent in use till today! She dared to stand for Presidency. She dared to ignore the dangers and perils of defying the Moi Regime, and therefore managed to save Karura Forest & Uhuru Park, among many other projects some of which I'm sure I shall never hear off. She was a Member of Parliament, an Assistant Minister, but she received news of her Nobel Prize win whilst in wearing gumboots working in a garden. She was an extraordinary woman, and she definitely left her mark not just in Kenya, but around the world.
I have spent the day looking at her pictures with Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey and other world leaders. I listened to the radio as Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf gave her tribute to her friend and colleague. I listened as Gladwell Otieno, reminisced on the Late Maathai comparing her with her own late mother, the legendary Wambui Otieno-Mbugua. All these have helped me understand, what a resource and a treasure the Professor was, and also made me alive to the fact, that one never knows what he has until he has lost it.
She wanted to be our President. What if we gave her that chance? Let her steal that First Democratically Elected Female President in Africa from her friend. She was in government, but was made an Assistant Minister. If she was our Commander in Chief, would we have had the Maize Scandal? The arguments about GMO? The Free Primary School Education Scandal? Would it have been business as usual for Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Power and others who endanger people's lives everyday, just as long as the bottom line remains healthy. What if the people of Tetu had elected her, what would have been the legacy she would have left on the Constituency? Even without ever being elected, she has done so much for the whole Nation, what if we gave her mandate and backing?
We have taken so much of our time in politics barking up the wrong tree, and wondering why the country is in the quagmire it is. It is because the same old names keep being recycled in the August House and in State House. At the end of the day, we are doing the same thing and wondering why the results are not different. I keep telling guys, I have exorcised the spirit of politician past from my psyche, and no one in this current or former parliament is getting my vote, no matter who he or she is. None of them have earned that privilege from me. Time has come for us to look at the alternatives. Those who have proved themselves in their little corner, those are the ones who deserve our vote. And if you are out there, and you know you have integrity and purpose and God has given you ability to lead incorruptibly, please stand up, we need GOOD men and women to challenge those who have so spitefully used us through the years.
I leave you with a clip from Prof. Wangari Maathai, and I too like her, choose to be a Humming Bird. What about you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw&feature=share
Joy B. Mdivo
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