Leaders Should Put Aside Their Political Differences And Give Mukami A Decent Burial
The Mt Kenya Times 
Freedom fighter Mukami Kimathi
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- He wished her a quick recovery and announced that President William Ruto to settle her medical bill of Sh4 billion. We learnt that she had been discharged but she was being held because of non payment of the bill when the President and I were in Nyanza and Western Kenya to launch development projects.
- The President told me to immediately return to Nairobi to sort out this matter.
- Speaking besides her hospital bed, Rigathi told her family. Maitu (grandmother) will now go home. Please keep updating us about her progress. As a government, we are ready to provide all the support needed.
Freedom fighter Mukami Kimathi will be laid to rest on Saturday at her Njabini home in Nyandarua County.
After the sad news of her demise broke out, the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua led a group of elected leaders, mostly drawn from Mount Kenya region, to view and pay last respect to her body lying at The Lee Funeral Home.
He later visited her home in Njabini and announced the government has taken the burial preparations.
“We are mourning a great patriot and heroine. Apart from being the wife of Freedom Fighter Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, she joined other fighters who fought fiercely the British colonial administration.
At one point, she was arrested and upon conviction served her jail term at Kamiti Maximum Prison.
As government, we recognize gallant role she played. We also appreciate the contributions of other freedom fighters”.
Gachagua, a son of Mau Mau, had a few weeks visited Mukami at Nairobi Hospital.
He wished her a quick recovery and announced that President William Ruto to settle her medical bill of Sh4 billion. We learnt that she had been discharged but she was being held because of non payment of the bill when the President and I were in Nyanza and Western Kenya to launch development projects.
The President told me to immediately return to Nairobi to sort out this matter.
Speaking besides her hospital bed, Rigathi told her family. Maitu (grandmother) will now go home. Please keep updating us about her progress. As a government, we are ready to provide all the support needed.
We pray God to restore her strength and energy.
We wish to see this great fighter living a long life.
Reports have indicated President William Ruto will lead the government team in this burial.
The Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Raila Odinga also announced that he will attend.
Mama Mukami is a freedom fighter. I don’t need permission from anyone. So I will attend whether I am invited or not. He also warned DP Gachagua against politicizing this burial.
One would not understand why Raila made these comments.
I had followed the statements attributed to DP and I never heard him telling the Azimio leader and his brigade not to attend this burial.
Gachagua would only shower Mama Mukami with praises because of her contribution in struggle to liberate Kenya from the draconian, oppressive and imperialist rule of colonial government.
He would also state that the government of President Ruto was committed to give her a decent burial.
Perhaps, Raila’s anger emanated from Gachagua’s pronouncement that he is a son of Mau Mau. Raila does not believe so. Does he know DP’s parents? Does he know what they were doing during the struggle? He should prove this with facts.
It is also worth to note Raila himself is not a son of Mau Mau.
The call by Gachagua to give Mama Makumi a decent burial would bear the fruits if leaders from both sides of political divide restrain themselves from using this ceremony to settle political scores.
We know this burial comes at a time when the political temperature was high.
This follows the dispute arising from the presidential election held in August last year.
The leadership of Kenya Kwanza and Azimio were yet to agree on how to sort out contentious issues.
Raila who had unsuccessfully contested for the fifth time was yet to accept the outcome.
This is despite losing his petition at the Supreme Court of Kenya. In a unanimous decision, the judges upheld the victory of President Ruto.
The local, regional, continental and international observers had also given the poll a clean bill of health.
In all elections he had lost, Raila would always allege he had been rigged out.
It will be wrong to turn Ms Mukami burial into a theatre of grandstanding and escalating their hardline stances.
I know Raila’s wish is to use this event to demonstrate that he is one who truly believed in the ideals and aspirations of the freedom fighters.
In addition, he would try to portray himself as a leading light in championing the plight of the surviving freedom fighters and their families.
Politicians are good in reading public mood. So, noting that audience were Kikuyus, Raila may not end his speech without mentioning the name of former President Mwai Kibaki.
Sometimes back, I heard him saying. As a Prime Minister during the reign of the grand coalition government, I worked with President Kibaki to address their plight. He is likely to repeat this in Njabini.
I want to remind Raila. President Ruto and Gachagua valued the contributions of Mau Mau and had shown in deeds and actions that they were committed to address the plight of surviving ones and their families. So, don’t expect to take credit alone.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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