This man Dedan Kimathi

Walking along Kimathi Street in Nairobi, you have probably come across a statue of a man donned in military-like regalia, holding a firearm in one hand and a knife in the other. 

That is the statue of Mau Mau freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi.  It was made to picture him holding the last weapons he used to fight for Kenya's independence. 

Kimathi was the senior military and spiritual leader of the Mau Mau Uprising during Kenya's colonial period. 

He was born on October 31, 1920, in Nyeri with the birth name Kimathi wa Waciuri. 

Kimathi led the Mau Mau in fighting against British colonial rule in the 1950s until his capture in  1956.

While Kenyans view him as the heroic figurehead of Kenya's freedom struggle, the British government saw him as a threat.

But Kimathi and fellow freedom fighters only got state recognition as heroes under the Mwai Kibaki administration when he got the Koinange Street statue. 

The statue was unveiled by Kibaki on February 18, 2007, the day marking the 50th anniversary of his execution. 

Kimathi started his political agitation in the late 1940s when he came across members of the Kenya African Union. 

By 1950, he had become the secretary to the KAU branch at Ol Kalou, which was controlled by militant supporters of the Mau Mau cause.

The Mau Mau began as the Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), a militant Kikuyu army which sought to reclaim land from the British settlers. 

Kimathi joined Mau Mau in 1951 and as KAU branch secretary, he presided over oath-taking.  

His activities with the group made him a target of the colonial government. 

This marked the beginning of his involvement in the uprising. 

Kimathi's fight for independence came to an end in 1956 after his arrest.  

He was married to Mukami Kimathi.

In 2010 Mukami requested that the search for Kimathi's body be renewed so that she could give him a proper burial.

But his remains have never been found to date. 

Unknown to many, anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela held Kimathi in high regard. 

In July 1990 after Mandela's release from prison, he came to Kenya and requested to see Kimathi's grave. 

Unfortunately, Mandela's request  was not met.

But before he left for South Africa, Mandela at Kasarani Stadium stated publicly his admiration for Kimathi and other Mau Mau leaders saying they inspired his own struggle against injustice.

In 2005, during his second visit, Mandela finally managed to meet Mukami and two of Kimathi's children.

To honour him, institutions and roads were named after him such as the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Dedan Kimathi Stadium in Nyeri and the famous Kimathi Street. 

On October 21, 1956, Kimathi was captured and sentenced to death while he lay in a hospital bed at the General Hospital Nyeri.

The day before his execution, Kimathi wrote a letter to father Morino.

In the letter, Kimathi wrote about his wife saying "She is detained at Kamiti Prison and l suggest that she will be released sometime. I would like her to be comforted by sister for she too feels lonely. If by any possibility she can be near the mission near Mathari so that she may be close to the sisters and to the church."

He asked to see his wife and on the morning of the execution, Mukami was brought to see him.

The two talked for close to two hours.

He told her that:

"l have no doubt in my mind that the British are determined to execute me. I have committed no crime, my only crime is that l am a Kenyan revolutionary who led a liberation army....now if l must leave you and my family l have nothing to regret about. My blood will water the tree of independence."

In the early morning of February 18, 1957, he was hanged at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

He died aged 36.