African Icon, Wangari Maathai Is Dead

The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Mrs. Wangari Maathai, has died, reports from Kenya, her home country, said early today.

P.M.NEWS learnt that Maathai died last night in Nairobi, the Kenya’s capital after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71.

Her death was confirmed by Green Belt Movement, the environmental organisation she founded, the Associated Press reported.

One of Kenya’s most recognisable women, Maathai won the Nobel in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism.

She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, where over 30 years she mobilised poor women to plant 30 million trees.

Edward Wageni, that group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai was in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said.

In recognising Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime in Kenya and that her “unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression.”

—Simon Ateba