What was the connection between empowering women and the work of The Green Belt Movement?
WM: It was almost by coincidence — well, it was not really a coincidence, it was almost by — it had to be that way — I’m trying to say, because first of all, this whole idea started in the national council of women, we were trying to prepare to go to Mexico in 1975, in a time when you will remember, when there was a global women’s movement. And the very first United Nations Conference on Women was to take place in Mexico in 1975, and as we were preparing to join the rest of the women in Mexico, we organized around the umbrella of the National Council of Women of Kenya. So it was very natural for me to reach out to the women, and address the issues that they were raising. The second reason is, in that part of Africa, it’s the women who actually are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who fetch water, so if there is no water, it is them who walk for days — or for hours I should say — looking for water. They are the ones who fetch firewood. They
