Smitten by plants

Dr NAJMA DHARANI, Plant and Environmental specialist

By Allan Olingo

It has taken dedication and sacrifice to get where she is.

Dr Najma Dharani, a research consultant at World Agroforestry Centre (Icraf) and a lecturer at Kenyatta University, had to device an ingredient that has helped her balance between work and family. She loves plants with a passion and has dedicated her time to research, publishing six books on them.

“The reason I started writing was because I had great difficulty getting books that could describe plants in Africa and so I started documenting all parts of my travel, talked to communities and then published them. Soon a publisher in South Africa picked my work,” says Dr Dharani.

Of her book Amazing Trees and Shrubs’ the first edition had eight reprints and the second is on its second re print, showing how popular the book is.

Fulfilling career
Says Dr Dharani: “I am working with several farming communities in East Africa including highland, midland , arid and semi-arid pastoralist and agro-pastoralist on medicinal, timber, fruits, forage and their importance and conservation in communities and schools.”

Dr Dharani says she enjoys working and visiting these pastoralists, as they are warm and welcoming.
So how did she end up with this passion for plants?

“I was born in the suburbs of Karachi, Pakistan, to a peasant family. My father was a farmer and that is how I came to love plants. I loved the farm life and that’s why I joined the University of Karachi in Pakistan for my first degree in Botany. I graduated with honours in 1986,” says Dr Dharani who did her masters degree at the same institution.

In 1991, the don married the love of her life — Firoz Dharani, a Kenyan — whom she had met in Pakistan.
She later relocated to Kenya and immediately fell in love with the land.

“Back in Pakistan, nobody had ever been to Africa except for my brother who had come on a fact-finding mission about my husband’s roots and his family in Kenya. So when I came, I fell in love with Kenya,” she says.

Dr Dharani says she was so amazed at the natural environment and with her degree speciality, she instantly made Kenya her second home.

“I was teaching Botany in Karachi but there we had little vegetation for research. When I came here my world opened up. It was like paradise. The flora and fauna was just amazing,” says Dr Dharani.

She decided to have a family first before pursuing her career and it was this time that she got her two sons, Farhan Dharani, 19, and Riwan Dharani, 16.

She also started her own business. In 2000, Dr Dharani got an admission to undertake her doctorate studies but could not make it due to the tight schedule that it required.

“The course was costly plus I was to be there for six months and this would have taken a toll on my young family. I opted out and a friend introduced me to the University of Nairobi’s, Botany department and I started my doctorate in Plant and Environmental Ecology in 2002,” says Dr Dharani.

The doctorate study was not easy and Dr Dharani admits that she would work for almost 18 hours a day.

“I worked long hours because it was also during this time that I published my books Field Guide to Acacias of East Africa and Life’s Little Secrets. My family and in-laws were supportive,” she says.

One of her publications — Field Guide to Acacias of East Africa — involved a lot of travelling because the acacia trees are spread a lot around East Africa.

Evergreen ideas
“I remember I had to go to as far as Kigoma in Tanzania and north eastern to look for this tree species,” she reveals.
Her other books are Common Antimalarial Trees and Shrubs of East Africa, Medicinal Plants of East Africa, Nairobi Arboretum: The Places of Trees, Life Little Secrets and City Park, The Green Heart of Nairobi.

Says Dr Dharani: “While I was studying for my doctorate, I also doubled up as a part time lecturer at the University of Nairobi in Upper Kabete campus.”

Between September 2008 and March 2009, Dr Dharani was a lecturer at the department of Biological Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where she specialised in research and teaching plant ecology, genetics and morphology.

In April 2009, she got a teaching job at the School of Environmental Sciences, in Kenyatta University, where she is involved in research, teaching and field study.

“I teach a number of courses including Land use dynamics and conservation; agro forestry systems and practices in East Africa, East African flora and fauna, endangered species, advanced environmental ecology and environmental biology,” she says.

Since 2005, Dr Dharani has been a consultant research scientist at World Agroforestry Centre on different projects including medicinal plants used to cure human, livestock and poultry diseases, a role she enjoys.

“My work entails conservation and management of natural resources in East Africa and evergreen agriculture in Eastern and Southern Africa,” she says.