We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!
We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.
We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.
We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind.
Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.
I am working to make sure we don’t only protect the environment, we also improve governance.
That’s the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree.
That’s the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.
For me, one of the major reasons to move beyond just the planting of trees was that I have tendency to look at the causes of a problem. We often preoccupy ourselves with the symptoms, whereas if we went to the root cause of the problems, we would be able to overcome the problems once and for all.
We refuse to share resources; we govern irresponsibly. If we are confident, if we have some of our cultural values, then we would be more committed to assisting our people out of poverty and creating an environment that can make it possible for our friends to assist us.
It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement’s work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.
For us who are now in power, we need to be challenged to serve the people and ignore our own egos and personal interests so that we can really demonstrate to other African states that it is possible to share power without going to war.
There’s a general culture in this country to cut all the trees. It makes me so angry because everyone is cutting and no one is planting.
We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.
It’s a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem.
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
The little grassroots people can change this world.
What is really important is to educate people how to protect themselves and how to ensure that, despite their poverty, they can get tested and access drugs. So I just hope that those who can will make those drugs available.
The essential role of the environment is still marginal in discussions about poverty. While we continue to debate these initiatives, environmental degradation, including the loss of biodiversity and topsoil, accelerates, causing development efforts to falter.
Because I was a woman, I was vulnerable. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a ‘good African woman.’