Mukami Kimathi, the widow of Kenya’s beloved freedom fighter, Dedan Kimathi, has passed away at Nairobi Hospital at the age of 101. According to her daughter Everlyne, Mukami was rushed to the hospital on Thursday night due to breathing difficulties. Until her death, she had been advocating for the exhumation of her husband’s remains from Kamiti Maximum Prison to be buried at his home.
Official government records show that Kimathi was captured by the British colonial administration in 1956 and executed a year later in Kamiti Prison. The search for his remains began in the 1980s when Mukami’s family petitioned the State to help locate them, attracting global attention with offers of help from countries such as Argentina. However, no one except the British government knows the exact location of his grave.
In a recent media interview, Mukami expressed her desire to be shown the exact place where her husband was buried before she dies. “I do not have long to live, and this matter has been a thorn in my flesh,” she said. Last year, she appealed to President William Ruto and King Charles to intervene and help locate her husband’s grave.
Kimathi, born Kimathi wa Waciuri, played a critical role in leading the armed struggle against the British colonial regime in Kenya in the 1950s until his capture and execution in 1957. He was a senior military and spiritual leader of the Mau Mau uprising. He is believed to have been born in 1920.