1) Wangari Maathai is our HERO and we are very proud of her! Dr. Wangari Maathai is an environmentalist, a political and human rights activist, a member of Kenya’s parliament, a former Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and the founder of the Green Belt Movement. As the first woman in East and Central Africa to have earned a doctoral degree and the first African woman and environmentalist to have been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, it is no wonder that Professor Maathai initiated a grassroots tree planting program — to address issues of deforestation, soil erosion and an inadequate water supply in her country — which also blossomed into an organization that works with women to improve their quality of life. According to the Green Belt Movement, Professor Maathai has helped women in Kenya plant more than 30 million trees on their farms and on school and church lands. In 1986, the Green Belt Movement established a Pan African Green Belt Network through which it shared its environmental conservation/tree planting programs with other African groups. Today, more than 40 million trees have been planted in total across Africa due to GBM’s efforts. As a result, soil erosion has been reduced in critical watersheds, thousands of acres of biodiversity-rich indigenous forest have been restored and protected and hundreds of thousands of women and their families have empowered themselves and their communities. Miriam

2) The environment in this coutnry Kenya needs a lot of help. Papers are everywhere. People dig trences and the sand is left there on the road. People throw rubbish anywhere and everywhere. In the slums it is another story. Dirt everywehere: sewage pipes and the water flows everywhere together with human waste. There is only a few tilets and sometimes people gotto the toilet in the bushes and open grounds. I would really like to heplp out but I do not even know where to start. I think first and fore wos the sewage pipes should be fixed and put in place in a way that they will never burst. Mbuthiq Charles Njoroge

3) Actually Boda Bodas are quiet good for the climate, aren't they? Have a look at the picture. It shows a boda boda - our bycicle taxis: The bicycle taxi operators partly have the Government to thank for the fast growth of their informal trade. This was after Transport minister John Michuki introduced stringent traffic rules to streamline the Public Service Vehicles, which led to an increase in fares and some PSV operators being pushed out of business. The crisis reached a turning point after a countrywide matatu strike in 2004 to protest at Michuki's directive, which paralyzed public transport.Many people in Nakuru started using bicycles to reach their places of work.Those who did not own bicycles would pay for a ride, and the boda boda business was born in the town. The taxis now ply a number of routes in the town, with the operators charging between Sh15 and 20, which is cheaper than matatu fares.