Kenya: Legendary Independence Heroine Mukami to Be Buried On May 13 – Family

Nairobi — Mukami Kimathi, the widow of Kenya’s revered freedom fighter Dedan, will be laid to rest on May 13, 2023.

Confirming the burial date, the family spokesperson Evelyn Kimathi stated that they consulted with President William Ruto.

Mukami died on Thursday night at the Nairobi Hospital aged 101.

Until her death, Mukami has been advocating for the exhumation of the remains of her husband from Kamiti Maximum Prison to be buried at his home.

Dedan headed the feared Mau Mau rebellion and was executed half a century ago by the colonial authorities, prompting her later to appeal to the Kenyan government to exhume his body so he could be given a state funeral.

But successive governments tried and failed to locate his remains.

Official government records show that Kimathi was captured by the colonial administration in 1956 at Kahigaini in the Aberdare ranges and executed in 1957 in Kamiti Prison.

“I do not want to die before being shown the exact place where my husband was buried. I want to see the remains of my Kimathi before I go. I do not have long to live and this matter has been a thorn in my flesh,” Mukami said in a recent media interview.

Kimathi, born Kimathi wa Waciuri, was a senior military and spiritual leader of the Mau Mau uprising who led the armed struggle against the British colonial regime in Kenya in the 1950s until 1956 when he was captured and executed a year later. He is believed to have been born in 1920.