What was wangaris interest in uhuru park

However, the negative publicity in media coverage and the government response to the opposition led to foreign investors cancelling the project. In the late s, the government wanted to sell of parts of the Karura Forest to build luxury housing. Karura Forest is an urban acre forest located in Nairobi. This would be a threat to the ecosystem of Karura which is greatly responsible for the air in Nairobi.

Professor Maathai mobilised the GBM to campaign against the clearing of the land when developers had began clearing parts of the forest. Uhuru Park had already shrunk considerably since Independence to make way for a football stadium, hotel, and a members-only golf club whose land will be unaffected by the expressway plans. Thirty years later, almost to the day, Kenyan authorities have decided to build an elevated highway linking downtown Nairobi to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to curve its way through Uhuru Park.

Moreover, the societal costs of the project and its Chinese financing remain obscure. In , there were multiple reasons for Prof Maathai and, later, many Kenyans to oppose the proposed skyscraper.

That same year however, she abandoned her academic career to dedicate herself to the environmentalist cause in which she had been developing interest since childhood. It was not long before she was seen as a troublemaker. Sadly, was also the year of her separation from her husband, Mwangi Mathai, a businessman and member of parliament with whom she had three children.

Two years later, Mwangi went to court to formalize the divorce. Maathai denied all charges but the divorce was granted. Her outspoken resistance, mobilization of international political networks and the public demonstrations she organized, succeeded in turning international investors away from the project. It not only forced President Moi to step back but signalled one of the first cracks in his dictatorial regime.

Maathai had been a woman of the networks she skilfully used to challenge political, economic and social conventions. From the s onwards, she was part of various global campaigns not only raising awareness about environmental issues and other forms of global violence, but also fighting for greater political, social and economic global equality.

Her US education was certainly instrumental in giving her the rhetorical means to establish various transnational alliances, raise financial and solidarity support, and gain international media attention Musila , 42 and Roy, But more than just a global discourse, Maathai was one of the pioneer activists who managed to use international connections to advance a national political agenda. The way she succeeded, for example, in having the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme on her side during her campaign for the Karura Forest had much greater political consequences: it signalled a strategic rapprochement between international and civil society organizations, at a time international politics were about to take a new turn with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coming end of the Cold War.

To the young people I say, you are a gift to your communities and indeed the world. You are our hope and our future. I would drink water straight from the stream…. Later, I saw thousands of tadpoles: black, energetic and wriggling through the clear water against the background of the brown earth. This is the world I inherited from my parents. The challenge is to restore the home of the tadpoles and give back to our children a world of beauty and wonder. Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Enthusiasm for learning. Empowered to make a difference. Improved health and academic performance. Just some of the benefits of EE for youth, educators, schools, communities. Every month we carefully select new educational apps, videos, interactive websites, books, careers information, and teacher-generated materials that support PLT lessons.

Use these STEM lessons to teach students the difference between a wildfire and a prescribed fire, and how fire can be beneficial to forests when it is planned and managed. Students conduct a health checkup of a local forest or wooded area, take forestry measurements, and evaluate the ecological services provided by trees and forests.

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Environmental Education Resources Every month we carefully select new educational apps, videos, interactive websites, books, careers information, and teacher-generated materials that support PLT lessons.