Kenya has a special place in the United States that is dedicated to the country in perpetuity thanks to 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai.
The unique space is located at the North Lawn Building Gardens of the UN headquarters in New York.
"With Ambassador Koki Muli at the UN HQ in New York. I took a moment to visit this unique space dedicated to Kenya in perpetuity," former Environment CS Judy Wakhungu once captioned on a Linked In post. It is where the late acclaimed environmentalist Maathai planted an indigenous Dogwood tree in 2005.
Later in 2014, Kenya's Mission to the UN, the Green Belt Movement, Women's Environment & Development Organization as well as the UN Forum on Forests partnered to unveil a commemorative plaque and plant a similar tree to the one Maathai planted.
The following year, President Uhuru Kenyatta installed a special bench in her honour.
Before her death in 2011, she had also been appointed the UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on the environment and climate change.
Messengers of Peace are individuals who possess widely recognized talents in the fields of art, academia, literature, sports and entertainment, helping to raise worldwide awareness of the organization’s ideals and activities.
The UN recognises that thanks to her advocacy and leadership, more than 10 billion trees had been planted by the time of her demise.
Apart from being the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, she was also the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D.
She obtained a Degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, a Master of Science Degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi where she also taught veterinary anatomy.
