Wangari Maathai, A Life So Well Lived - Great Loss for Kenya and the Environment

It fills me with great sadness to have to write this, but it would be criminal not to pay tribute to one of the greatest Kenyan heroines. Yesterday we lost a piece of ourselves as a country. Today Kenya bleeds because our beloved Wangari Maathai, the heroine of the Greenbelt Movement, tree planting, saving the environment and all other things green, is gone. In our hearts and our nation she has left a void we can’t help but feel, and we pray that we will all rise up to fill that void.

Our forests, the wild, nature, will feel her loss. As much as we hope another leader like Wangari will arise and take on her mantle, I pray rather that in each of us her spirit will live and we will continue the work, taking care of our environment, bleeding and raising our voices when the environment is threatened; one at a time, everywhere, greening Kenya in each and every way possible, tending our natural resources like a delicate infant that must be allowed to mature and thrive so it can fulfill its destiny. It’s the least we can do in memory of such a beloved, hard working, tireless, sacrificial national heroine.

For most of us her demise was so sudden, so unexpected, and therefore that much harder to take. But our Nobel Laureate has done her work thoroughly and exhaustively. She surpassed all and went thousands of extra miles because she did it as a passion, was ahead of her time and labored to take us all along with her in the cause to save the environment. She has fought the good fight, kept the faith and finished the race. It is now our turn, if for no other reason, at least to honour her toil, her love for our nation, her devotion.

Rest in peace, our dearest lady.

Kenya and the Hague Dilemma

I find it difficult to make any comments or form an opinion about the Kenyan trials going on at the Hague at the moment. The reason for my dilemma is simple really: When Parliament was given a chance to form a Local Tribunal and spare us the shame and humiliation of being paraded before the whole world, it failed, thus our current predicament. Many of them who, at the time thought they were getting back at the Executive for all sorts of grievances, now find that was a miscalculation as they could never have guessed who exactly would wind up in the Hague. Granted, others are simply elated at the way things are.

Second, one can't help but wonder whether true justice could ever be carried out in our courts for the big fish. Much as we want to believe otherwise, so far the practice has been that the rich, the mighty, the connected, are always acquitted, without fail. Even with a change of guard at key Institutions the practice hasn't yet changed. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but at the moment we have no idea which direction our Justice is headed.

Of course one also wonders whether our fellow Kenyans will get justice at the Hague. We sure hope so, but there is a little nagging worry that this unbidden desire to 'make an example' of Kenya could strain justice. Why make an example of Kenya, a country that has hitherto behaved itself so well? Why not go for the real rogue nations in 'making an example', and treat Kenyans with greater kindness instead? I'm not suggesting the guilty go unpunished, just that there are other, less harsh, less humiliating ways for a model nation like ours.

And of course one can't help but feel other culprits of Post Election violence, who should also have been in the Hague, were left out of the List. And the big question is why, why, why?

So I watch the proceedings on TV with little interest, often wishing they could simply be reported instead of being beamed live, all the time wishing I could be left to watch the normal line-up of TV programmes. But it's obvious we'll continue to be confronted with the Hague trials, a scourge we can't seem to escape.

Our Post Election victims were deeply wronged by what happened to them, and they must get justice and compensation for their woes. But I can't help but feel Kenya as a nation (not individuals) was wronged too by the way in which this whole Hague issue was discussed and executed.

Well, we all get a chance, many chances in fact, to learn by experience. Hope this hurtful and painful experience has taught us all, our leaders especially, a lesson we will never forget, and that we will never repeat the mistakes of yesterday.


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