Dedan Kimathi nephew meets ex-Ghanaian President’s son named after freedom fighter

The 13th African Games held in Ghana last month reunited a Kenyan and Ghanaian who were named in honour of freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi.

The late Jerry Rawlings, the former President of Ghana, in 1980 named his last-born son Kimathi Rawlings in honour of Kimathi.

Rawlings was reunited with Moses Mbuthia Kimathi, a nephew of Dedan Kimathi and whom he considers his uncle.

Mbuthia, was in Ghana managing Kenya’s beach volleyball team.

Mbuthia took the opportunity to link up with Kimathi Rawlings and exchanged gifts from the greater Dedan Kimathi family.  

“The linking up with Kimathi Rawlings was nostalgic to both of us, as it reminded us of the commitment our great leaders had to make freedom for everyone and that is what, both Dedan Kimathi and also Jerry Rawlings believed in,” Mbuthia told the Star.

Mbuthia said Rawlings looks forward to getting some updates on Kimathi’s resting place in Kenya.

“He asked me to pass his regards to the rest of the family and said he looks forward to the new bond that has been created between him and the greater Dedan Kimathi family,” Mbuthia added.

In a letter to the Jerry Rawlings family, Dedan Kimathi Waichuri, the grandson of Dedan Kimathi expressed his appreciation for the positive association over the years brought by sharing the family name.

“Indeed, it was a great honour for the family of the late Jerry Rawlings to name one of his sons Dedan Kimathi Rawlings. We take great pride in that. For that, the family name will be preserved and honoured,” Waichuri wrote.

On February 18, 2024, the daughter of Mau Mau freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi, Wanjugu Kimathi, asked the government to expedite the search and exhumation of her father’s remains.

Speaking in Kahiga-ini Mau Mau Memorial Park in Nyeri during the 67th commemoration of Dedan Kimathi day, Wanjugu expressed her concerns over the continued delay, saying that the number of sources who can help with the process of tracing Kimathi’s grave was dwindling by the day.

“We have noted with great concern that as we (the family) are told to wait, those people who participated in Kimathi’s burial or were working in the prison at the time or in the forest, are dying. Only a few people who can help with the search are remaining,” she said.

“I am appealing to the government and the international community to expedite the process. It is now or never. We should not wait anymore because if we wait a bit longer we might not get Kimathi at Kamiti Maximum Prison,” added Wanjugu.

In September last year, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua committed to tracing and exhuming the remains of the freedom fighter.

The late Dedan Kimathi was the senior most military commander of the Mau Mau uprising.

Kimathi led the Mau Mau in fighting against British colonial rule in the 1950s before he was captured on October 21, 1956, in Kihaga-ini after he was shot in the thigh.

In their book, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, authors Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the late Micere Githae Mugo say that following his arrest, Kimathi was charged at the Nyeri court with being in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

According to their account, Kimathi was sentenced to death by hanging by Chief Justice Kenneth Kennedy O’Connor on November 19, 1956.

Kimathi would later file an appeal at the Court for Eastern Africa, but the court dismissed his first appeal in December 1956.

His subsequent petition for a review of the sentence before the Judicial an unofficial holiday in his honour in Kenya and around the world Committee of the Privy Council in London was similarly declined by the Committee on February 14, 1957.

After the two failed appeals Dedan Kimathi was hanged to death and buried in an unmarked grave in the grounds of Kamiti Maximum Security prison on the morning of February 18, 1957.

Dedan Kimathi Day is the unofficial holiday that is celebrated annually on February 18 in honour of the day Kimathi was executed.