Clearly identifiable
Wangari Maathai
Founder of the Green Belt Movement. Tetu MP and Assistant Environment Minister 2003 to 2005. Nobel Peace laureate. Died 2011.
Never held executive power. Actions first; stated positions and reports count less.
What the record shows
- DFounded the Green Belt Movement in 1977.
- DElected MP for Tetu in 2002.
- DAwarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
What they say they would do
- Said they wouldProtect public land and forests.Record so farDStopped a planned office tower in Uhuru Park and helped save Karura Forest.
- Said they wouldMass tree planting as a route to rural livelihoods.Record so farAThe Green Belt Movement reports tens of millions of trees planted.
Where the evidence points, by dimension
Social values: Leans socially progressive (medium confidence)
Built the Green Belt Movement around rural women, paying them to plant trees and organising them politically.
Land, wealth and taxes: Leans strong redistribution (medium confidence)
Fought the grabbing of public land: Uhuru Park in 1989 and Karura Forest in 1998 to 1999.
Institutions and power-sharing: Leans checks and devolution (medium confidence)
Campaigned for multiparty democracy, then served as an MP and assistant minister.
Political style: Anti-establishment (high confidence)
Confronted the Moi government for more than a decade from civil society.
Civil liberties: Liberty-first (high confidence)
Joined the 1992 hunger strike with mothers of political prisoners at Freedom Corner, where police beat her.
What they appear to have stood for
A liberty-first environmental and democratic activist who treated public land as a public trust.
Contradictions in the record
- INot assessed.
How to read this page
Actions come first: laws, votes, decisions, court cases. Words count less, and only where the record is thin and not contradicted. A leader with real power now is judged on actions only. Tags: D documented, A attributed to a named source, I our interpretation, U not yet re-checked, S stated position, H hearsay. An allegation is not a finding. This is a research draft, not voting advice. Read the full method.