Wangari Maathai had been planting trees since 1977. By the mid-1980s, the Green Belt Movement she founded had planted millions of trees and organised thousands of rural women across Kenya. When she began speaking out on political issues, and particularly when she challenged the government's plan to build in Uhuru Park, Moi's administration responded with harassment, arrest and public humiliation. Moi himself called her a mad woman. Maathai continued to plant trees, continued to speak out, and continued to connect the destruction of Kenya's environment with the destruction of its democracy.