Ethics ratings and subsets for every nation: Kenya
Moral Contours
Historical figures
From a Kikuyan tribal background as an orphan, house boy and cook, attending a Scottish mission school, he subsequently worked on a farm and trained as carpenter. As a representative of the Kikuyu Central Association he was sent to England to explain tribal land interests and returning took up the campaign against FGM (female circumcision). Back in England again he studied anthropology with Malinowski, all the time increasing in stature with fellow countrymen. He became leader of the nationalist movement for Kenyan independence and Mau Mau guerrilla group, and thereafter first prime minister and president. He put great emphasis on collaborative endeavour – across tribal interests in Kenya in the spirit of Harambee - the collective pooling of resources, and across national interests in developing the spirit of Pan-Africanism.
Life
Speeches
Video
Wangari Maathai was the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She authored four books: The Green Belt Movement; Unbowed: A Memoir; The Challenge for Africa; and Replenishing the Earth. In her book, The Challenge for Africa, she argues for a moral revolution among Africans themselves. Illuminating the complex and dynamic nature of the continent, Maathai offers “hardheaded hope” and “realistic options” for change and improvement. She deftly describes what Africans can and need to do for themselves, stressing all the while responsibility and accountability. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. She continued to develop this idea into a broad-based grassroots organisation, the Green Belt Movement (GBM), whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting. Professor Maathai was internationally acknowledged for her struggle for democracy, human rights, and environmental conservation.
Life
Nobel Peace Prize biography of Maathai with links to further materials
Very brief introduction to Maathai's life and work
Video
Sister Irene Stefani was born and raised in a small town in Northern Italy. She had had a rather tragic childhood, losing her mother at 16 after quitting school to take care of her. In late 1911, as a 20-year old woman, she joined the Consolata Missionaries in Turin, Italy. She took her final vows two years later and boarded a ship for Mombasa, Kenya, in 1914. In Kenya, Sr Irene joined the Consolata Missionaries station in Nyeri. As World War I (1915 -1918) casualties mounted, Sister Irene and her fellow nuns joined the Red Cross as volunteers. Sr. Irene became very soon the “angel of charity,” as a medical colonel called her in the military hospitals in Kenya and Tanzania. Later she was giving herself unsparingly in the Mission of Gikondi (1920- 1930) and the people were calling her with the nickname “Nyaatha” meaning ‘Merciful Mother. Sr Irene’s work among the people of Gikondi left a rich legacy of compassion. In 1930, an epidemic of the bubonic plague hit the village. While treating the afflicted, she contracted the disease and died. She was only 39. In April 2, 2011, the beatification of Stefani was sanctioned by Pope Benedict XVI following a miracle that occurred at Nipepe in Mozambique where refugees running from conflicts and who sought refuge in a church drank water from a miraculous overflowing baptismal front.
Life
- The beatification of Irene Stefani
- The life and work of Irene Stefani
Brief timeline of the life of Irene Stefani
Video