What a sacrifice?

This picture of Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi, taken in the forest as the War of Independence raged, is one of the priceless historical items the Sunday Standard has in its possession. They include the Bible Kimathi used on February 17, 1957 - exactly 45 years ago - the day before his execution.
What happened to his family?
The making of a freedom hero
Dedan Kimathi was born on October 31, 1920 in Tetu location in the North Tetu Division of Nyeri District. He used the surname of Wachiuri, his mother’s former husband who had died some years before his birth. Wachiuri had three wives and so it was a large family. Kimathi had two brothers (Wambararia and Wagura) and two sisters.
There are many stories about his legendary pranks as a child but it is impossible to say how many are true and how many are mythical and have grown with the legend. At the age of fifteen he became a pupil at Karunaini Primary School in Tetu and excelled at English and poetry.
To raise money for his school fees he established a small night class where, every evening, he taught other youngsters whatever he had learnt during the day. In exchange he took money or paraffin or soap, which he then sold at Ihururu Market.
Three years later he became a pupil at a more advanced school, Wandumbi, on the Tetu/Thegenge borders. This time the fees came from the seeds of Grevillia Robusta which he collected in the Aberdares and for which the Forestry Department was paying a cent a tin.
On September 17, 1938 he was circumcised at the Ihururu Dispensary. In 1939 he got his kipande from the DC’s office and got his first job with the Forestry Department. Leaving there under a cloud he met and impressed a teacher called Eliud Mugo from Mathira Division. Eliud, blind in one eye and later to become a notoriously oppressive Chief in lriaini Location during the Emergency, arranged for Kimathi to enrol at the Tumutumu CSM School. He stayed there for two years, save for a three-month break in 1941 when he joined the army. He finally left Tumutumu in February 1944, being unable to pay fees arrears.
Over the next five years he tried different ways of earning a living, becoming a school teacher, a clerk with first a dairy and then a timber firm, and a trader. In January 1949 he got a job, but not for long, as a teacher at his old school Karinaini.
But wherever he went and whatever he did Kimathi became a welcome and popular figure with his fellow Kikuyus on his travels. He had a powerful and attractive personality and he began to involve himself in the politics of the day, and also of the night.
Initially he was just one of the stewards at the mass rallies held by Kenyatta and other politicians. However, he speedily graduated and became the chief organiser. He was elected secretary of the Ol Kalou and Thomson’s Falls branch of the Kenya African Union (KAU) on June 2, 1952. It is widely accepted that he was already planning a more proactive and aggressive strategy than the Muhimu Central Committee with whom he had long forged links.
Four months later he was involved in organising a mass oathing ceremony on the banks of the Gura River, which was attended by thousands of Kikuyus. Nderi Wang’ombe, the Nyeri District Senior Chief, got wind of what was happening. Fatally, Nderi decided to intervene and he was killed by the frenzied crowd. Kimathi became a marked man and shortly afterwards he was arrested by Chief Muhoya’s Tribal Police at a friend’s house.
At the Chief’s Camp, he did a deal with the guards and disappeared in the night to the Aberdares. He was now 32 years old and entering the most important four years of his life.
By the end of it he had been, at the least, a crucial factor in forcing the British Government to reassert its right to dictate the pace of constitutional change in Kenya. British Colonial Secretaries henceforth used this right rapidly too dismantle the white settlers’ political power in Kenya, some more ruthlessly than others.
Kimathi’s war became a most vivid real-life demonstration to the world that the British people, severely exhausted by the Second World War, no longer had either the will or the resources to impose colonialism in Kenya or anywhere else in Africa through the barrel of a gun.
It is one of the ironies of our history that in October 1956 Kimathi was shot and captured while at the same time Lennox-Boyd (Colonial Secretary) was telling the annual conference of the Conservative Party that “any other policy but that of moving towards self-government and satisfaction of nationalist aspirations in the colonies would be fraught with disaster”?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ngii Ndune!!,

Ngii Ndune, I would like to see the Pic.Kîmathi aciarîirwo gwitû Nyîrî Mûkaro.He was my childhood hero.And to this day,when they ask who my hero was and is,I still say Kîmathi.

When I feel discouraged,I think of Kîmathi and what he would do.He would stand tall,face the challenge knowing the consequence and go ahead and do what needs to be done.And the consequence was,he paid with his life.
You are right.
What a sacrifice! May He rest in Eternal Peace.

http://www.misterseed.com/NEWYEAR/FEB2002/ONTHEMOVEone.htm

For me easily Kenyas greatest son. It's a big shame on us that his family is still destitute. They've never enjoyed the fruits of his labour for which he died. A few weeks back, the Nation had a piece about meeting famous widows and Kimathis widow was one of them. Shame.

SamuelKahiga has written this excellent book that takes you right into the forest. It's written as work of fiction based on facts. I think a good starting point in order to understand the war, which collapsed more as a result of african treachery rather than British might. The British simoply turned brother against brother but ther was also a simmering conflict within the movement between the formally and informally educated, as well asregional rifts. Not really different from modern day Kenya.

Njamba nene na njega!!