A Kenyan environmentalist has come out to explain why a tree planted in memory of the late Nobel Laurate Prof Wangari Maathai in 2011 was cut.
This is following a public outcry after a picture of the tree trump went viral last week.
According to Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti, an environmental sustainability analyst, the tree was cut down last month after it split into two and posed a risk to children who use a nearby footpath.
“The tree behind the pool right at the Prof Wangari Mathai memorial is splitting into two. It’s a huge risk as kids use that route to the pool and cricket field,” she explained.
She divulged that “nature had taken its course”.
In the pictures labeled ‘Lizmazingira’, the environmentalist is quoted saying before her team could decide what to do, the tree became more dangerous.
“When the guys involved got my message, that path was closed on both ways. However, when we were still here deliberating on what to do next, one half of that tree came all the way down and actually damaged the water treatment plant and the remaining half was also posing a risk to the children as it also appeared weak from the top branches and that’s why it also had to come down,” the environmentalist added.
According to local media outlets Prof Wangari Maathai didn’t plant the tree – The tree had been planted a long time ago, but the institution saw it right to dedicate it in memory of the late Prof Maathai in 2011.
One of the administrator revealed that the group didn’t do away with the tree trump as they believed the tree will sprout with time.
In replacement of the tree, the institution is said to have planted eight tree seedlings along the same line where the tree was cut.
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Prof Wangari Maathai died in 2011, she was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
In 1977, Prof Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights.
In their numbers, Kenyans on social media questioned why the tree was cut down despite being associated with
Last week, Kenyans on social media reacted angrily to the picture of a tree trump planted in memory of the late Nobel Laurate Prof Wangari Maathai in 2011.
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