Dedan Kimathi

Lore & Background

Kĩmathi was likely born around 1920 in today's Nyeri County, where his father sent him to school. He excelled in writing and speech, but historian David Anderson notes he was fiercely competitive, bullying, and frequently disciplined by teachers. He traveled to Nairobi in the late 1930s, joined the British army in 1940 but was discharged after one month, allegedly for drunkenness and violence. He moved from job to job, including as a swineherd and primary school teacher, from which he was reportedly dismissed after accusations of violence against his pupils.

Around 1947 or 1948, while working in Ol Kalou, Kĩmathi came into contact with members of the Kenya African Union (KAU). By 1950 he had become secretary to the KAU branch at Ol Kalou, which was controlled by militant supporters of the Mau Mau cause. Upon taking the Mau Mau oath in 1951, he joined the Forty Group. As branch secretary, he presided over oath-taking, administered beatings, and carried a double-barrelled shotgun. He was briefly arrested that year but escaped with the help of local police. He formed the Kenya Defence Council to co-ordinate all forest fighters in 1953.

On 21 October 1956, British colonial police officer Ian Henderson trapped Kĩmathi in his forest hide-out. Kĩmathi was shot in the leg and captured by a Tribal Policeman called Ndirangu Mau. He was charged with unlawful possession of a .38 Webley Scott revolver and six rounds of ammunition, tried before Chief Justice O’Connor with three African assessors, found guilty, and sentenced to death while in a hospital bed. His appeal was dismissed. On 18 February 1957 he was executed by hanging at Kamĩtĩ Maximum Security Prison and buried in an unmarked grave, whose location remained unknown until 25 October 2019.

Reader's Guide

Dedan Kĩmathi's significance lies in his role as a leader of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army during the Mau Mau Uprising, a key phase in Kenya's struggle for independence from British colonial rule. He is credited with formalizing military structures within the movement and convening a war council in 1953. His capture in 1956 marked the beginning of the end of the forest war, and his execution in 1957 made him a martyr for Kenyan nationalists. Despite being viewed negatively by Kenya's first two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi, Kĩmathi and his fellow Mau Mau rebels were officially recognized as heroes under the Mwai Kibaki administration, culminating in the unveiling of a statue in 2007 and reinforced by the 2010 Constitution calling for recognition of national heroes. The British government later funded a Mau Mau memorial statue in Nairobi in 2015 as a symbol of reconciliation. Kĩmathi was also held in high regard by anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, who sought to visit his grave and meet his widow in 1990, though the request was not met at that time.

Did You Know?

• Kĩmathi was one of the Field Marshals of the Mau Mau, along with Baimungi M'marete, Musa Mwariama, Kubai Kubai, and Mũthoni Kīrīma.
• He was captured on 21 October 1956 by a Tribal Policeman called Ndirangu Mau after being shot in the leg.
• His burial site remained unknown for 62 years until 25 October 2019, when the Dedan Kĩmathi Foundation reported it had been identified at Kamĩtĩ Prison grounds.
• Nelson Mandela, five months after his release from prison in 1990, visited Nairobi and requested to see Kimathi's grave and meet his widow, but the request was not met.