Kenyan scoops top UN award

Nzambi Matee, Unep’s Young Champion of the Earth for Africa, holding a paving stone made from recycled plastic at her Industrial Area factory.

When Nzambi Matee told her friends she was planning to take up waste management as a career, they thought she was crazy. She was 27 years old, had a degree in Physics from Jomo Kenyatta University, and her peers thought she could do better than recycling waste.

However, if that was the direction she had taken, her friends felt she should employ people to do the ‘dirty’ work. But Matee chose to ignore those who doubted her passion. She pressed on. And being recognised by the UN Young Champions of the Earth programme was the least of her expectations, especially coming just three years after she started.