Heroes shunned at home but feted abroad

There is a verse in the Bible that says a prophet is never accepted in his hometown.

Many Kenyans can relate to that statement because they are largely guilty since they are not fond of recognising or honouring some of the country’s achievers, or heroes in a wider sense of the word.

When professor Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to the conservation of the environment, Kenya celebrated her because she was the first environmentalist and African woman to win the coveted prize.

She founded the Green Belt Movement that continues to call for the conservation of the environment even after her passing in 2011.

The country however has not deemed it fit honour her life’s work in any explicit way as many would have expected.

Ideally, if she were from another (Western) country, she would have been the toast of the nation.

This shows just how true that verse is given that professor Maathai, who also fought for democracy and women’s rights has been honoured in other countries, half the world away from Kenya.

In December last year, Peru honoured her legacy by naming a city park after her and also planted a ceremonial tree in her honour.

The late Nobel Laureate who was also behind the creation of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign now called Plant for the Planet, which had planted more than 12,000,000 trees around the world by the end of December 2011, was honoured by Pittsburgh University in the United States in 2013.

Had a truly global impact

That is the university where she studied for her master’s degree, and it honoured her by putting up a memorial plaque in a garden called Wangari Maathai Trees and Garden on the campus.

During the unveiling of the garden, the school’s Chancellor Mark A Nordenberg said “professor Maathai’s lifelong commitment to advocating for women, the poor, and the oppressed, especially through her founding of the Green Belt Movement, has had a truly global impact, bringing hope and opportunity for a better life to countless women.

“In light of these accomplishments, coupled with the honour that she has brought to the university as one of our outstanding alumni, it is only right that we pay tribute to her life accomplishments through the creation of a living monument here at the university.”

That is not the only honour the late professor received outside Kenya.

On the day that would have been her 73rd birthday on April 1, 2013, she was honoured with a Google Doodle when the search engine firm worked her image in to its logo.

When she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, the Norwegian Nobel Committee noted that “Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya.

“Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression — nationally and internationally...She combines science, social commitment and active politics.

“More than simply protecting the existing environment, her strategy is to secure and strengthen the very basis for ecologically sustainable development...Her methods have been adopted by other countries as well.”

Despite the deep respect Kenyans feign to have for their heroes and achievers such as professor Mathaai, they have failed to immortalise their legacies and she is just one of the many who are hardly remembered for making the country proud.

Until recently, the freedom fighters who fiercely fought with colonialists for the country’s Independence self-rule were not recognised.

The 2010 Constitution stipulated that October 20 be set aside to celebrate the heroes and heroines. Nowadays called Mashujaa Day, it was initially known Kenyatta Day and was dedicated to the famous Kapenguria Six who included Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

The move to set aside a day to celebrate the heroes was welcomed, but there are still very many heroes who continue to live in abject poverty despite their contribution to the freedom Kenyans enjoy today.

Apart from Dedan Kimathi, whose statue was erected on a street named after him, most freedom fighters have received little or no recognition at all.

The statue was erected in 2006 — 43 years after Independence — but the exact location of his grave is still not known, or has never been made public if at all some people in the government know it.

In 2012, during a tour of Nyamdarua County, the then Prime Minister Raila Odinga admitted that freedom fighters had been neglected.

The former PM said that Kimathi‘s remains would be exhumed from Kamiti Prison; he would receive a decent burial and his grave turned into a national mausoleum.

“I have talked to the Minister for National Heritage and funds for this exercise will be provided as remembrance for the work he did for the country,” he said.

That is yet to happen. When it comes to being honoured, Kenya’s sports men and women who have put the country on the world map have not been lucky either.

Examples of athletes in the wider sense of the word who won medals for Kenya in international competitions, but lived and died in penury are legion, and as the musician sang “many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die...”

Deity in other countries

The most recent case is that of Maurice Odumbe, the once celebrated cricketer who skippered Kenya to its first World Cup appearance in 1996 in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Even though he has a deity status in the sub-continent, and in many other sports-mad nations, he is barely known at home where he is a pale shadow of his former flamboyant self.

He was accused of bringing the game in to disrepute and banned for five years, but after he served his time, he could not pick up the pieces and even the cricketing body did not assist him like cricketers in other countries were assisted by their respective sports bodies after such punishments. “I served my term and it may not have been in Kamiti or Industrial Area prisons, but I served my time and I suffered and I am still suffering,” Odumbe said early this year on the JKL Live show hosted by Jeff Koinange on KTN.

Her star is bright

During the interview, he revealed that he often leaves his phone with shylocks for a small amount of money for his transport and meals. He broke down several times on the show as he expressed how hard life has been.

“I often wonder what all the things I did were for,” he said, alluding to the years he represented Kenya and played in three three World Cups where he got Man-of-the-Match award in each. No Kenyan cricketer has managed such feat to date.

Then there is Lupita Nyong’o, an achiever in the performing arts industry who put the country on the world map after she won an Oscar in 2014 for her role in the movie 12 Years a Slave.

Just like professor Mathaai’s win was celebrated in a fleeting manner, Lupita’s Oscar was also soon forgotten.

Even though her star is still bright, very bright, and she did not fight for Kenya’s Independence, her contribution in making the country known, cannot be gainsaid.

These are just but few examples, and they are proof that Kenyans pay little attention to those who represent the country well, but other (Western) nations notice their potential and honour them.