Kenya on Saturday bade farewell to the late environmentalist and Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai at a state funeral held in a public Nairobi park she saved from destruction.
Maathai in 2004 became the first African woman to be awarded the peace prize for taking “a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular.” The staunch conservationist died of ovarian cancer on September 25. Her remains, carried in a coffin made of hyacinth fibre and bamboo frames, were to be cremated later on Saturday.
“Besides being a woman of great courage and tenacity, the late professor Maathai demonstrated, by example, the virtues of selfless service to the nation,” President Mwai Kibaki said. Her coffin, draped in the Kenyan flag, was driven in a black hearse to the Uhuru Park (Freedom Park in Swahili) where hundreds of mourners and dignitaries gathered for the funeral.