Freedom Icon, Mukami, Has Died Before Her Main Wish Bore The Fruits
The Mt Kenya Times 
Freedom fighter, Field Marshal Mukami Kimathi
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- For now, the only befitting honor that Kenya Kwanza Government can accord Ms Mukami, the departed freedom icon, is to pursue this matter to a logical conclusion.
- I’m happy to note that President Ruto has assigned the Deputy President to look into this matter and also the plight of other surviving Mau Mau fighters and advise his government accordingly.
- This is because majority of the fighters hailed from the Mount Kenya region.
- Gachagua has also been repeatedly saying he is a son of Mau Mau. So, this matter is close to his heart.
- After the death of Mukami broke out, the DP led a high powered government team to Lee Funeral Home where the body was taken for preservation.
When she was battling multiple health complications largely associated with her advanced age, Ms Mukami Kimathi, the wife of the freedom fighter Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi Wachiuri, had one main wish to the leaders in the current and previous governments of Kenya who used to flock her home or hospital to wish her a quick recovery.
My wish is to see the remains of my husband and have an opportunity to give him a decent burial.
Therefore, I plead with you to help me to locate and identify the grave where he was buried by the oppressive and brutal colonial authorities and exhume his remains.
I can see my days on the earth are drawing closer. So, help me realize my wish before I die. She would utter these words even when she was in great pain.
As it turned out, she has left us before the efforts by the Kenya Kwanza Government to locate the grave of her husband bore the fruits.
Ms Mukami and her family had been seeking similar interventions from the previous governments.
President Mwai Kibaki and his successor Uhuru Kenyatta had shown some goodwill but thier efforts also hit a dead end.
For the current administration, the pronouncements by President William Ruto and his Deputy President Rigathi left no doubt it was taking this matter seriously.
We want to know where Kimathi was buried.
We have even written a petition to our former colonial master (British Government).
They owe us an explanation and we are demanding that they should show us this grave.
Going by narrations of the historians, this is story of how Kimathi met his death in 1957.
He was first captured by British soldiers while in the Abardares forest and this happened soon after he held a meeting with Mau Mau fighters.
Being the face of struggle, he was their main target. The soldiers however knew they were dealing with a dangerous person.
So, the first move was immobilizing him so they can disarm him. They first shot him in the leg and this enabled to capture him while alive and ferried him to Kamiti Maximum Prison.
Sometimes back, some media reports had indicated there was a person assigned the work of washing and cleaning his wounds.
This showed he was not killed immediately.
There were unconfirmed reports that the British Colonial Authorities wanted to first consult one of the prominent Kenyan leader who happened to be a key rival of Kimathi.
Two bulls cannot be put in same pen. He reportedly responded when he was asked whether the Field Marshal should be eliminated.
As it would later emerge, there was on record whether he was buried within Kamiti prison land.
His killing was treated as top level secret. This created the room for speculations.
Some reports would allege. The colonial authorities chopped his head and flown it to UK where it was put in their archives.
For now, the only befitting honor that Kenya Kwanza Government can accord Ms Mukami, the departed freedom icon, is to pursue this matter to a logical conclusion.
I’m happy to note that President Ruto has assigned the Deputy President to look into this matter and also the plight of other surviving Mau Mau fighters and advise his government accordingly.
This is because majority of the fighters hailed from the Mount Kenya region.
Gachagua has also been repeatedly saying he is a son of Mau Mau. So, this matter is close to his heart.
After the death of Mukami broke out, the DP led a high powered government team to Lee Funeral Home where the body was taken for preservation.
He had few weeks earlier visited her at the hospital here in Nairobi and announced that President Ruto would clear her medical bill of Sh4 million.
The DP kept his word. He followed this matter and she was immediately discharged.
For starters, Mukami was a freedom fighter. Apart from taking care of her husband, the leader of the movement, she played a key role of ferrying the guns used by the fighters for service and returning the firearms back to them.
These are guns they had snatched the colonial soldiers. This after abducting, killing and subduing some of them. At a time, the Mau Mau raided their camps.
She also used to sneak and supply food and arms to the fighters in the caves and other designated hideouts of the forest where the fighters would congregate to eat the food.
She worked together with other battle-hardened women.
Some of them used to escape death narrowly while others paid ultimate price.
The British soldiers had identified them as a key pillar in this war.
So, they had crafted a strategy of annihilating them. They would not spare them when they met and spotted them.
These women had learnt the art of dodging bullets and taking cover.
For others, they would trick the soldiers by pretending to befriend them. They would later escape after engaging them in a ‘lovely chat’.
This explains why many survived.
As I conclude, let me say this to Mukami. Maitu, you fought a good battle and you will be remembered forever. Rest, Maitu, Rest In Peace.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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