The family of Wangari Maathai of Kenya has announced the 2004 Nobel peace laureate will be cremated in Nairobi on Saturday.

Family spokeswoman Vertistine Mbaya said Monday the cremation is being carried out according to Maathai's wishes. A tree-planting ceremony will also be held Saturday to commemorate her life.

Maathai was Africa's first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She died at age 71 on Sunday, after a long battle with cancer.

Maathai won the Nobel prize for her stand against Kenya's former oppressive government and her work to improve the lives of women.

She founded the Green Belt Movement, which helped poor rural women through a tree-planting program designed to provide basics such as firewood, food and clean drinking water. The organization has said it recruited hundreds of thousands of men and women to plant more than 47 million trees.

The movement grew to promote other issues such as democracy, human rights, women's rights and peace.

Maathai also served as a member of the Kenyan parliament, and as the country's deputy environment minister.

Maathai attended college in the United States during the civil rights era in the 1960s, and said that experience inspired her to return home and do something positive for the people of Kenya.