The World today woke up to the sad news of the death of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai. According to a statement from the Green Belt Movement which she established, Wangari died in hospital where she was undergoing treatment for cancer. She was 71.

An outpouring of condolence messages and grief can be evidenced at her facebook page where many have regred her death and appreicated her efforts in ensuring a better world.

“It is with great sadness that the Green Belt Movement announces the passing of its founder and chair, Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai, after a long illness bravely borne,” the organisation said in a statement on its website.

“Prof. Maathai passed away on the 26th of September 2011 in Nairobi. Her family and loved ones were with her at the time,” the statement, signed by the movement’s Executive Director Karanja Njoroge, added.

Wangari Maathai, who was also a veterinary anatomy professor, rose to international fame for campaigns against government-backed forest clearances in Kenya in the late 1980s and 1990s and her campaigns against high rise buildings.

She branded the clearances a political ploy that caused irreversible environmental damage. The courts blocked her suits and Green Belt lawyers complained that their cases were dismissed on technical grounds or their files were mysteriously lost.

But her efforts won her the Nobel Prize in 2004, becoming the first African woman to receive the coveted international recognition. She was the first Kenyan and the first environmentalist to receive this honour. Her organisation has planted some 40 million trees across Africa.

Some people say Maathai who served as a Member of Parliament in 2002 was the first woman in east and central Africa to earn a doctorate. She was later named the environment assistant minister, a position she held between 2003 and 2005.

“Her departure is untimely and a very great loss to all of us who knew her — as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine — or those who admired her determination to make the world a peaceful, healthy, and better place for all of us,” Green Belt said in its statement.

More about Maathai Wangari on Wikipedia