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Friday, October 14, 2011

Cremation: Wangari Defies Tradition in Death

She continues to defy both tradition and stereotypes even in death. Her love for trees continues in her will to be cremated instead to cutting trees to make a coffin for her. Wangari Maathai's trail blazing is a spectacle in all spheres of a rich life lived humbly.

They say a dead professor is like a library burnt down. Well, a cremated professor must double the loss. Wangari's smart will to be cremated has denied scheming politicians to hijack her burial. The family has made it plain that the cremation at Kariokor will be a private a fair sparing us crocodile tears and plastic eulogies.

It is both a paradox and coincidence that Wangari is being buried at the height of announcing this year's Nobel prizes. And she is not alone now that we have seen a posthumous nomination for the Medicine prize. Prof Ralph Steinman missed his moment of glory by three days after dying from pancreatic cancer last Friday. But the good news he left the human race the richer with his scientific discovery on the immune system.

Back to our elite Wangari who refused elitism. She fought the fight, dirtied her hands and never whined about feminism waiting for portfolios on a silver platter. She went and grabbed what the women folk deserved. Our only tribute must be living her legacy.

5 comments:

  1. Wangari was one of the best we had. But I fear that her Greenbelt movement was not felt country-wide.

    Anyway she was bold against Moi's destructive tyranny. She is lucky not to have ended in Nyayo Hse like Raila.

    She should be counted as one of Kenya's Heroes.

    We want see more of such people in Kenya, esp from Mt Kenya and RV, where political tyranny and corruption has made people to consider money and materialism to be more important than human lives.

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  2. Now that Gadhafi is no more, we want our Grand Regency back. This was bought by Goldenberg money, which was 100% Tax payer's cash.

    Raila and Mwai should act swiftly. We also dont want to see blood stained oil in Libyan fillings stations in Kenya.

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  3. Prezi(???) Uhuru barred from Parliament over shilling

    Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta has been barred from participating in Parliamentary business until he presents a statement on the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar October 13, 2011
    By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
    Posted Thursday, October 13 2011 at 18:09

    Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta has been barred from participating in Parliamentary business until he presents a statement on the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar.

    Temporary Speaker Dr Joyce Laboso made the ruling Thursday afternoon following demands by Gwassi MP John Mbadi, who lamented that the minister had delayed the statement for too long.

    “We will not transact any business with the Finance minister until he brings a statement on the state of the shilling,” said Dr Laboso.

    Mr Mbadi had asked the Temporary Speaker for a ruling as neither Mr Kenyatta nor his assistant Dr Oburu Oginga was in the House to deliver the statement yesterday afternoon.

    The MP had asked for a statement on June 16, when the shilling was trading at Sh89.4 to the dollar, with the rate on Thursday at a mean of Sh104.

    Mr Kenyatta was then said to have advised the MP to let the matter cool down as it was causing panic in the public and the House would discuss it later.

    The continued silence on the matter led to yet another request for statement by Githunguri MP Njoroge Baiya on July 21.

    On Thursday, Mr Mbadi said the Finance minister ought to have presented the statement last Tuesday, based on a commitment he made to do so before Parliament went on a break on September 8.
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    He later told the Nation that an adjournment motion to have Parliament discuss the crisis caused by the depreciation of the shilling had been refused on the basis that there is still a pending statement.

    The Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Finance and Planning has also become interested in the matter and summoned Central Bank governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u last Tuesday.

    Prof Ndung’u on said it would take “two, three or even six months” for the shilling to stabilize and it took long for CBK to take measures to strengthen the shilling because it had thought it needed a gradual solution “but we didn’t expect it to go on.”

    CBK, he said, had thought the problem facing the shilling required less immediate attention and that it did not know it would be affected by global problems.

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  4. Wangari Mathai was not cremated because it was environmentally safer than burial. No. It was because she did not have a house in Nyeri to speak of. She lived in a mud house in a green area. She could not see her body being safe in that area. Her expensive coffin could have goon by now.

    Look at the facts people. Cremation involves burning. You need more tinder and oil to burn a body to ashes than you need to make a coffin. And buried coffin and body are biodigradable into CO2 (and other minerals)which are safe and kinder to the environement and Ozone that Wangari cared much about. If I can see this how come her PHD did not help her see this?
    It was about environment but but shame of luck proper shelter in Nyeri and fear of her body being thrown out for village dogs as her valuable coffin is take back to Nairobi for sale by you know who?

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  5. It is not bad to own a mud hse, but it is bad to have mad neighbours, who would steal anything including coffins. What a people are these? Mungiki? Unchristian? Uncivilized?

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