Eloise Mukami, widow to Mau Mau legend Dedan Kimathi has on Tuesday, September 17, launched a passionate appeal to President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga to help exhume her husband's remains to give him a decent burial.
Through a press release by Dedan Kimathi Foundation, she asked the government to take the process of locating the body seriously so that she can honor the independence hero citing that old age was catching up with her.
"I know records are showing where the grave is. I appeal to President Uhuru, Raila and Ruto to ask the British to identify the grave so that I can bury his remains before I die," she was quoted during a recent event in Nairobi.
Eloise, the patron of the Dedan Kimathi Foundation, now permanently domiciled in a wheelchair, expressed optimism that the government was going to take her plea seriously.
She reminded Kenyans that Kimathi was a hero who put his life on the line, and was hanged because of fighting for the country he loved.
She also dismissed disparaging comments from those who stated that Kimathi's focus in the Mau Mau Uprising was only to get Kikuyu land from the British, stating that Maumau fought for Kenya and East Africa as a whole.
The former Mau Mau fighter, now in her late 80s, further lamented about the state that many of the Mau Mau fighters have been left in abject poverty after spending nights in the bushes fighting for freedom.
"Look at other countries - freedom fighters got rewards. And what happened to Kenya's freedom fighters? Most of them did not secure jobs. Some still have bullets lodged in their bodies and live in misery," she was quoted.
Mukami also appealed to the young people in the country to desist from taking alcohol and abusing drugs and instead turn their energies to God.
Dedan Kimathi was shot and injured in the forest by Kenyan home guards. He was then taken for trial at a Nyeri court, where he was hanged and his body disposed of at Kamiti Prison.
The spot where Kimathi died has a stone monument that reads: “Born 31st October 1920, Died 18th Feb 1957. It is better to die on my feet than to live on my knees afraid of colonial rule. Dedan Kimathi Wachiuri.”
