Ikeda has had dialogues with many people including Arnold J. Toynbee, Linus Pauling, Wangari Maathai, Marianne Pearl, M. S. Swaminathan, Roberto Baggio, Coretta Scott King, Joseph Rotblat, John Kenneth Galbraith, David Norton, Betty Williams ( nobel laureate ), Ba Jin, and Rosa Parks.

Maathai and many others believed such a fractured opposition would lead to KANU's retaining control of the country, so they formed the Middle Ground Group in an effort to unite the opposition.

In 1989, Wangari Maathai and many of her followers held a protest at the park, attempting to stop the construction of the 60-story Kenya Times Media Trust business complex.

At the time, FORD-Kenya's leadership included some of the top opposition leaders in Kenya, including lawyer James Orengo, economist Professor Peter Anyang ' Nyong ' o, Raila Odinga ( the son of Oginga Odinga ), Oburu Odinga ( Raila's elder brother, environmentalist, and, later on, Nobel laureate ), Wangari Maathai, and many others.

Maathai protested against the privatization through letters to the government and the press.

The protest there continued, with Maathai contributing frequently, until early 1993, when the prisoners were finally released.

In June 1992, during the lengthy protest at Uhuru Park, both Maathai and President arap Moi travelled to Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Environment and Development ( Earth Summit ).

On 8 January 1999, a group of protesters including Maathai, six opposition MPs, journalists, international observers, and Green Belt members and supporters returned to the forest to plant a tree in protest.

The Kenyan government closed Greenbelt offices, has twice jailed Maathai and she was subject in 1992 to a severe beating by police while leading a peaceful protest against the imprisonment of several environmental and political activists.

In November 2004, after discussions with sister Peace Laureates Dr. Shirin Ebadi of Iran and the late Professor Wangari Maathai of Kenya, Williams took the lead in establishing the Nobel Women ’ s Initiative launched in January 2006 ; she since has served as its Chair.

* Wangari Muta Maathai ( Kenya )

* Prof. Wangari Maathai, Kenya

On 1 April 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya.

Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai dropped her Christian name, preferring to be known by her birth name, Wangari Muta.

Maathai also joined the National Council of Women of Kenya ( NCWK ).

Maathai encouraged the women of Kenya to plant tree nurseries throughout the country, searching nearby forests for seeds to grow trees native to the area.

In 1979, shortly after the divorce, Maathai ran for the position of chairman of the National Council of Women of Kenya ( NCWK ).

During the conference, Maathai arranged seminars and presentations to describe the work the Green Belt Movement was doing in Kenya.

In October 1989, Maathai learned of a plan to construct the 60-story Kenya Times Media Trust Complex in Uhuru Park.

Maathai sought an injunction in the Kenya High Court to halt construction, but the case was thrown out on 11 December.

During this time, Maathai was being recognized with various awards internationally, but the government of Kenya did not appreciate her work.

The government of Kenya accused Maathai of inciting women and encouraging them to strip at Freedom Corner, urging that she not be allowed to speak at the summit.

During the first multi-party election of Kenya, in 1992, Maathai strove to unite the opposition and promote free and fair elections in Kenya.

When Maathai responded that she could not attend as she did not believe the government would allow her to leave the country and she was in hiding, Gorbachev pressured the government of Kenya to allow her to travel freely.

While protesting the land-grab and collecting petition signatures on 7 March 2001, in Wang ' uru village near Mount Kenya, Maathai was again arrested.

Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai again campaigned for parliament in the 2002 elections, this time as a candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition, the umbrella organization which finally united the opposition.

On 27 December 2002, the Rainbow Coalition defeated the ruling party Kenya African National Union, and in her constituency Maathai won with an overwhelming 98 % of the vote.

Professor Wangari Maathai established the organization in 1977, under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya.

* Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya, Illustrations by Kadir Nelson, Simon & Schuster / Paula Wiseman Books, 2010

Wangari Maathai, former Trustee Emerita, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on sustainable development and democracy in Kenya.

Sekkou Zouha, Zhen-Lin Zhang, Bruno P. Zehnder, Marinos Yeroulanos, Worldwide Fund for Nature, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, Paul Winter, Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, Joe Walulya-Mukasa, Aminata Wade, Lily Venizelos, Tsitsi Vangili, UNEPCOM, George H. Tomlinson, Anitra Thorhaug, Peter S. Thacher, Maurice Strong, Marion Stoddart, Stichting Werkgroep Behoud Tropisch Regenwoud, Chodchoy Sophonpanich, Ben Soans, Ully Sigar, Jill Sheppard, Philip Shabecoff, Sahabat Alam, Omda Sabil, Margaret Robertson, Robert Redford, Peter Raven, Gabor Racz, Carlos Pizani, Claiborne Pell, Bernard Lédéa Ouédraogo, The Nature Conservancy, National Geographic Society, Wlodzimierz Michajlow, Chico Mendes, Igor Mann, George Livanos, Guy Lionnet, Geoffrey Lean, Thomas Landgren, King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, Sophia Wambui Kiarie, Mugamir Eisa Khalifa, Mohamed Kassas, Mr. G. V. and Mrs. K. Karlekar, Abdullahi Karani, Petar Jovanovic, Instituto Forestal Latinoamericano, Satu Huttunen, Soichiro Honda, Sir Edmund Hillary, Rene Daniel Haller, Grupo de los Cien, Green Great Wall Group, Green Belt Movement ( Wangari Maathai ), Juan Grau, Joseph Glascott, Grigory Galazii, Fundación para la Defensa de la Naturaleza, Fundación para la Defensa del Ambiente ( FUNAM ), Fundación Natura, Vladimir Flint, Environmental Management Journal, Diario El Comercio, Bedrettin Dalan, Luc Cuyvers, Herman Contraries Manfredi, College of African Wildlife Management, Brian Clark, China Environmental News ( CEN ), Caribbean Conservation Association, Charles Caccia, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Bob Brown, Lester R. Brown, Francis Boateng, Chandiprasad Bhatt, Bellerive Foundation, Bamburi Portland Cement Ltd., David Attenborough, Asociación Peruana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, George W. Archibald, Arab Office for Youth and Environment ( AOYE ), Azaria Alon, Anil Agarwal

" 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.

" On 12 December, in Uhuru Park, during a speech celebrating independence from the British, President Moi suggested Maathai be a proper woman in the African tradition and respect men and be quiet.

The Interim President of ECOSOCC was Kenyan Nobel Prize winner Prof. Wangari Maathai.

Mr. Aderinwale MFR chaired the African Capacity Building Foundation ’ s Parlianet, based in Harare Zimbabwe ; currently the Vice President of the Statutory organ of the African Union, the Economic, Cultural and Social Council ECOSOCC presided by Prof. Wangari Maathai, Africa ’ s Nobel Peace Laureate.

World leaders, such as Mexico's President Felipe Calderón ( 2009 ), Norway ’ s Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland ( 1987 ), Australia ’ s Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser ( 1980 ); conservation legends Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton ; Nobel Laureates such as Dr. Thor Heyerdahl, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Dr. Mario Molina ; tribal and community leaders such as Tashka Yawanawa, Oren Lyons, Maqgubu Ntombela ; the heads of major international corporations ; and hundreds of budding conservationists have participated in the congress.

In January 1966, Maathai was awarded her MSc in biological sciences, and was appointed to a position as research assistant to a professor of zoology at University College of Nairobi.

Maathai continued to teach at Nairobi, becoming a senior lecturer in anatomy in 1974, chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976 and associate professor in 1977.

In addition to her work at the University of Nairobi, Maathai became involved in a number of civic organizations in the early 1970s.

In the summer of 1998, Maathai learned of a government plan to privatize large areas of public land in the Karura Forest, just outside Nairobi, and give it to political supporters.

On 7 July 2001, shortly after planting trees at Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park in Nairobi to commemorate Saba Saba Day, Maathai was again arrested.

Maathai in Nairobi with then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2005

Maathai and then-United States Senate | U. S. Senator Barack Obama in Nairobi in 2006

Wangari Maathai died of complications arising from ovarian cancer while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital on 25 September 2011.