Kenyan Nobel Laureate Maathai Dies

Kenya's Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, has died. She was 71.

The organization she founded, the Green Belt Movement, said in a statement that Maathai died Sunday at a Nairobi hospital after a long struggle with cancer.

The Nobel Committee awarded her the peace prize in 2004, citing her stand against Kenya's former oppressive government and work to encourage women to improve their lives.

Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to help poor women in rural communities meet their basic needs for firewood, food and clean drinking water through a tree-planting program. The effort later grew to include focusing on issues of democracy, human rights, women's rights and peace.

The organization says it has mobilized hundreds of thousands of men and women to plant more than 47 million trees.

Maathai also served as a member of the Kenyan parliament, and as the country's deputy environment minister.

She attended college in the United States during the civil rights era in the 1960s, and said that experience inspired her to return home and do something positive for the people of Kenya.

Maathai was one of the founding members of the Nobel Women's Initiative, joining other female peace prize winners to support women's rights advocacy around the world.

(Photograph of Wangari Maathai by Martin Rowe)

Kenyan Marathon Champ Wanjiru Dies in Fall

Photo: Samuel Wanjiru, breaking a world record in the 2007 Fortis City-Pier-City Half Marathon, 17 March 2007 (Photographer: FaceMePLS from The Hague, The Netherlands)

VOA News
16 May 2011

Police in Kenya say Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru has died after jumping off the balcony of his home during a domestic dispute.

Police say it appears the 24-year-old runner jumped in an attempt to stop his wife from leaving the house after she discovered him with another woman.

Regional police chief Jaspher Ombati said Wanjiru landed on a hard surface and sustained fatal injuries.

The dispute took place Sunday night in the Rift Valley town of Nyahururu, about 150 kilometers north of Nairobi. Wanjiru's wife, Triza Njeri, and his female companion were both questioned by police and then released.

Wanjiru set an Olympic record in 2008 to become the first Kenyan to win a marathon gold medal. He also won the London Marathon in 2009, and is a two-time winner of the Chicago Marathon.

But friends and colleagues say he was stressed by personal problems and had recently taken to heavy drinking.

Wanjiru was set to go before a court next week to face charges of possessing an illegal firearm.

In December, he was charged with threatening to kill his wife. Those charges were later dropped.

Ethiopian running great Haile Gebrselassie said on Twitter he was "totally shocked" to hear about Wanjiru's death. 

And in a statement Monday, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Wanjiru's death is a "big blow" to the country's dreams in next year's Olympics in London.