Kimathi’s Burial Site: From Symbolic Resting Place to Contentious Grave Matter
In 1968, the government of Jomo Kenyatta admitted that it knew where Dedan Kimathi was buried and was searching for a suitable burial site.
Kenyatta’s Minister of State, Mbiyu Koinange, informed Parliament that the grave in Kamiti Maximum Prison was “fenced and cared for” and that “plans were underway to determine how a better grave could be prepared…in a better place.”
It was the first and only admission by the government regarding the location of Kimathi’s grave, which has now become the epicenter of Kenya’s struggle with Mau Mau memory.
Perhaps unaware of Koinange’s 1968 admission, President William Ruto stated on Saturday that the government would rely on Mau Mau elders to locate the grave.
In actuality, no one recalled Koinange’s 1968 pledge, which has since faded from memory.
Some intelligence sources told me that when the matter was discussed in the Kenyatta Cabinet, it was decided that Kimathi’s exhumation should be shelved because it could have created a new point of interest at a time when Kenyatta’s government was facing numerous political challenges as a result of his dispute with Oginga Odinga.
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The narrative then shifted to the fact that the British government did not indicate Kimathi’s burial location.
Now that President William Ruto has agreed that the government will search for Dedan Kimathi’s body, this will be the second time that the government will search.
The government of President Kibaki assembled some Mau Mau veterans to locate the grave, but after a few false starts, the search was abandoned. Instead, they consented to construct a memorial.
In all of its efforts, the government has relied on the fading memories of Mau Mau veterans, as opposed to employing the modern scanning technology that has been used elsewhere to locate graves.
Various nations have utilized ground-penetrating radar to locate undiscovered graves.
In Canada, the same method was used to locate graves at former residential schools last year.
If there is evidence of Kimathi’s grave. It should be hidden in the Kamiti documents from 1968. Or those who worked there during that time would know its location.
Moreover, it could be contained in the government’s Cabinet documents from 1968.
Three years after Koinange’s promise. The late Member of Parliament for Embu East and Assistant Minister in the Office of the President, Kamwithi Munyi. Told Parliament that singling out a single freedom fighter for a ceremonial reburial would be against the spirit of building a united nation.
Accordingly, the government reasoned that the Kimathi saga was divisive. This, according to Munyi, would be a “waste of public funds and time to locate graves and exhume their remains.”
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As the government resisted efforts to exhume Kimathi’s body, a narrative began for the first time at that moment.
Assistant Minister S.M. Balala stated in the same year that there were currently no plans to construct monuments for national heroes.
GossipA2Z reported in 1971 that the Nairobi City Council and the Ministry of Local Government. Were in discussions to convert or replace the King George Fountain. At the intersection of City Hall Way and Parliament Building with the Kimathi Fountain. Also placed on hold.
Moi’s administration, in the Nyayo spirit of following in Kenyatta’s footsteps, continued with the same policies. When Lawrence Sifuna brought up the issue of unburied Mau Mau veterans, a member of parliament interjected, “Dedan Kimathi is already buried.”
In July 1993, with the advent of multi-party politics. The Minister for Home Affairs, Francis Lotodo, told Parliament that. “It is impossible to identify the grave of the late Dedan Kimathi at Kamiti Prison. The colonialists buried the deceased Dedan Kimathi in a mass grave with others who suffered the same fate.
However, Kiraitu Murungi, who posed the question, responded, “I would like to inform the Minister that the mass grave at Kamiti Maximum Prison is located outside the prison walls and that the late Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi is not buried there.
He was interred beneath one of Kamiti Prison’s walls. Since the Kanu government is unable to identify and bury the late Kimathi as a hero. Would the Minister grant Ford-K permission, at their own expense. To exhume the body of the late Kimathi and bury him next to the late President Jomo Kenyatta?”
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A shouting match ensued, with the Minister asking, “If the honorable member already knows (where Kimathi is buried), why is he asking?”
Then, the Langata representative Raila Odinga told the legislature. “The minister knows as well as I do that the Kamiti prison guards know where the Mau Mau prisoners were buried.”
Lotodo: “We do not know … If you dig everywhere, you will only find skulls, and you won’t be able to tell which one belongs to Kimathi.”
Another minister of state, Julius Sunkuli, told the opposition to stop pressuring the Moi administration to exhume Dedan Kimathi. “Members will remember that Dedan Kimathi did not die when Moi became president…”
During Mwai Kibaki’s administration, Mr. Kariuki Muiruri, MP for Gatundu North. Revisited the case and informed Parliament that four prisoners unloaded the body from the truck. And buried it somewhere in Kamiti.
“One of them has disclosed his identity. These individuals alone can identify the location.”
The then-vice president, Moody Awori, admitted that “four individuals have claimed that they were the ones who transported the remains…One of them has contacted the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs (Kiraitu Murungi), and we are awaiting the arrival of the remaining three. After this, we will exhume the bones and use current identification techniques to confirm that they are the correct remains. Then we will give our hero a proper burial.”
Whether the body will be located is currently a matter of anticipation.
Kimathi’s Burial Site: From Symbolic Resting Place to Contentious Grave Matter
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