Peter Kimani
18 February 2005
Nairobi — Mau Mau remains one of the most controversial aspects of Kenyan history, and so does Dedan Kimathi who, before his execution on February 18, 1957, personified terror to white settlers.
Kimathi lies handcuffed in a hospital bed after being betrayed by a turncoat and captured in 1956. The following year, he was executed by the British colonial administration and buried in an unmarked grave at Kamiti maximum-security prison.
Adored by dissidents - the underground February 18 Movement possibly honoured his execution anniversary - Kimathi symbolises defiance and rebellion.
Over the years, the veil of secrecy that shrouded the atrocities visited on the Mau Mau by the British colonialists continue to unfurl, revealing something shocking and revolting even though the possibilities of any sensible recompense grows ever more distant.
But the frequency with which old men and women troop into the city to address gatherings pushing for reparation demonstrates an abiding faith that justice may be done one day.
But there have been complaints that the past regimes totally ignored the surviving Mau Mau as their dependants sink deeper and deeper into poverty.
The possibility of the former freedom fighters being recognised by the State is problematic, for it assumes that those who laid their lives did it in the hope of payment, rather than for their country.
There have, however, been instances when visitors came asking to see the famous fighters' families, only to find that the Government had no idea where they were, or what they could be doing. This was the case when Nelson Mandela, upon his release from decades of imprisonment, visited and asked to see Kimathi's widow Mukami in the early 1990s, and shamed the nation as the widow had been totally forgotten.
Whether Kimathi receives recognition, either by being interred at the proposed Heroes' Corner in Nairobi, or whether his surviving family members ever get compensated by the British, there is no doubt that his future is secure in the collective memory of Kenyans.
Meanwhile, the History Association of Kenya will be relaunched today at the University of Nairobi's Taifa Hall.
A public debate, The Relevance of History in Contemporary Society, will be conducted from 2.30pm.
Prof Eric Aseka of Kenyatta University will chair the session, whose panelists include professors William Ochieng', Godfrey Muriuki, Simiyu Wandibba and Macharia Munene.
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