The spirit of Kenya’s freedom fighter the late Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi could be very restless over the shameful situation the widow is going through.
Mukami Kimathi, 101, who was hospitalized on January 5 was due to be discharged on January 12 but has since remained in hospital over an uncleared bill totaling Sh1,045,883.
Mukami had recently asked Kenyans of goodwill to contribute and help her offset a Sh1 million hospital bill.
Her daughter, Miriam Kimathi, had said the family was unable to clear the bill with efforts to reach out to President William Ruto’s office and that of his deputy President Gachagua for assistance proving futile.
“We are calling out on Kenyans of goodwill to come to our aid. We are helpless as we cannot afford the medical bill,” she pleaded.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has vowed to intervene and help and asked Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Gathiru to “look into her situation urgently” .
“I am saddened that Mukami, the wife of our hero, Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi Wachiuri, has been ill and admitted at a Hospital in Nairobi. This matter was brought to my attention yesterday while on a working tour in Nyanza with the President,” Gachagua tweeted.
Who is Dedan Kimathi ?
He was the senior military and spiritual leader of the militant nationalist group Mau Mau Uprising. Born Kimathi wa Waciuri; 31 October 1920, and died on 18 February 1957.
Kimathi is Widely regarded as a revolutionary leader, he led the armed military struggle against the British colonial regime in Kenya in the 1950s until his capture.
After a relentless campaign to capture Kimathi and his insurgents, the British colonial government’s tribal police captured him alone early on October 21st 1956 in the emergency trenches dug to separate the “native reserve” and the Nyandarua forest.
The nature of Kimathi’s arrest is still contested. Yet the recorded version of events is that Dedan Kimathi was shot and captured by tribal police constable Ndirangu Mau, who claimed that he shot Kimathi in the leg as he attempted to re-enter the forest and evade capture.
Kimathi’s capture was a momentous victory for the British, who saw him as the focal point of the uprising without which the forest fighters could not function.
After a laborious and intricate trial, on November 19th 1956, Chief Justice Kenneth O’Connor found Kimathi guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, actions made illegal by the Emergency Regulations put in place by the British Government in an attempt to quell the violence of the rebellion.
On November 19, 1956, at the Supreme Court of Kenya at Nyeri, the colonial government sentenced Kimathi death.
In the early hours of 18th February 1957, Kimathi was hanged to death at Kamiti prison and according to documentation, buried within its grounds.
