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Wangari Maathai could have been one of Kenya’s leading scientists. But 25 years ago, the first woman to get a biology doctorate in East Africa shed her white coat for the life of an environmental activist. Her mission: to help poor women farmers reclaim desert land by planting trees. Kenya is not the world’s most eco-friendly country. And Maathai has often paid dearly for her confrontations with the government of President Daniel Arap Moi: she’s been beaten up, had countless death threats and for a time had to go into hiding. Undeterred, she tried unsuccessfully to challenge Moi at the polls two years ago. Why…