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Kenyan activist wins Nobel Peace Prize

"We believe that Maathai is a strong voice speaking for the best forces in Africa to promote peace and good living conditions on that continent."

the Nobel committee

Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work as leader of the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, better the environment and fight corruption in Africa for almost 30 years.

Maathai, 64, who serves as Kenya's assistant minister for the environment and natural resources, is the first African woman to win the coveted prize and the first Kenyan to win any Nobel award.

She was also the first woman to earn a doctorate in east and central Africa.

She has been internationally recognized for her struggle for democracy, and gained recent attention for a campaign against land grabbing and rapacious deforestation. The Green Belt Movement (GBM) she founded in 1977 has planted more than 30 million trees across Africa.

GBM quickly became the largest community-based environmental organization in Africa with a focus on planting trees and empowering women.

Maathai's efforts have won her many other awards. It has also delivered her bruises and spells in police cells, notably in 1999 during massive protests on the streets of Nairobi against the grabbing of a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi, ironically just next to the headquarters of the UN Environment Program.

"We believe that Maathai is a strong voice speaking for the best forces in Africa to promote peace and good living conditions on that continent," the Nobel committee said in its citation.

With a record 194 nominations, the committee had a broad field to choose from and speculation had focused on other candidates.

Maathai, said she, too, was surprised.

"I am absolutely overwhelmed and very emotionally charged, really," she told Norwegian state television. "I did not expect this."

It was the first time the prize, worth 10 million kroner (US$1.36 million), recognized work to preserve the environment. The award marks a new theme in interpreting the 1895 will of Sweden's Alfred Nobel, who founded the prize.

"Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment," the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, said of the prize.

"We have added a new dimension to the concept of peace," Mjoes said. "We have emphasized the environment, democracy building and human rights -- and especially women's rights.

Maathai is the seventh African to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Maathai has also been praised for standing up to Kenya's former government, led by President Daniel arap Moi.
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