The environmentalist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10pm on Sunday (September 25,2011), according to officials at her Greenbelt Movement organisation.
Prof Wangari Muta Maathai was born on 1 April 1940 in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District in Kenya. She was an environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”
Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.