I can find Kimathi grave, says ex-warder

What you need to know:

  • Asked why he took too long to before volunteering the vital information, Mr Toroitich said: “This has been haunting me for many years, but I feel the time has come for me to remove this burden off my shoulders especially as my age advances.”
  • “Colonialists could not believe that the former freedom fighter was actually dead and we were ordered to man the graveside for three months as they feared that he might come back to life.”
  • Mr Toroitich, the father of 15 said, that after Kimathi was executed, the prison commissioner at that time ordered 16 warders to dig a grave about 40 metres from the prison’s main gate. Kimathi, he said, was buried with handcuffs on his hands.

I know where freedom hero Dedan Kimathi is buried, a former prison warder at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison has claimed.

Mr Samuel Toroitich, 82, made the claim as Kenyans celebrated Mashujaa Day on Monday amid calls by the freedom hero’s family for the government to help them trace his grave so that he can be accorded a decent burial.

In an interview with the Nation in Kabarnet, Mr Toroitich from Tuloi Village in Kaptum Location of Baringo North District, said he could help in locating the grave.

He said he had served at the prison between 1952 and 1957 and was present on the morning of February 18, 1957 when Kimathi was buried inside the prison.

“I remember that morning vividly as I was on duty at the watch tower,” the man said. “I can trace where the unmarked grave is even if tall buildings have been erected over it.”

WITH HANDCUFFS ON

Mr Toroitich, the father of 15 said, that after Kimathi was executed, the prison commissioner at that time ordered 16 warders to dig a grave about 40 metres from the prison’s main gate. Kimathi, he said, was buried with handcuffs on his hands.

“Colonialists could not believe that the former freedom fighter was actually dead and we were ordered to man the graveside for three months as they feared that he might come back to life.”

According to him, if prison authorities can allow him to go back to his former work station, he can pinpoint the grave.

Asked why he took too long to before volunteering the vital information, Mr Toroitich said: “This has been haunting me for many years, but I feel the time has come for me to remove this burden off my shoulders especially as my age advances.”

Mr Toroitich, who moved to Kong’asis area in Nakuru County upon retirement in 1974, said he had feared for his life. Many of his colleagues who were present when Kimathi was buried had died.

The former warder’s documents were destroyed in an arson attack during the post-election violence in 2007-2008.

However, he still has a Kenya Prisons Staff Co-operative Savings and Credit Society membership card as proof that the served in the prisons department. Besides Kamiti, Mr Toroitich also served in Nakuru, Wajir, Shimo la Tewa and Kodiaga prisons.

If the former prisons officer’s claims are indeed true, it will be a big relief to Kimathi’s family — especially his widow Mukami Kimathi.

Over the years, the family has tried in vain to get the government to exhume the hero’s body for reburial. The government has been unable to locate Kimathi’s grave since the first serious attempts were started after Narc came to power in December 2003.

Past efforts by people who claimed to know where the grave was bore no fruit. There is no record to show where the grave could be.

Who was this man Kimathi?

Kimathi was born in Thegenge Village, Tetu Division of Nyeri District.

His father, who had three wives, died before Kimathi was born.
Upon administering the oath of the Mau Mau, in 1951 Kimathi joined the Forty Group, which was the militant wing of the defunct Kikuyu Central. Association. He swiftly rose to prominence in the group and was elected as a local branch secretary of KAU in ol’ Kalou and Thomson’s Falls area in 1952.

His activities with the group made him a target of the colonial government and he was briefly arrested that same year, but escaped with the help of local police.

In 1953, he formed Kenya Defence Council to co-ordinate all forest fighters. He was finally arrested three years later with one of his wives, Wambui, and sentenced to death by a court presided by the then Chief Justice Sir Kenneth O’Connor. He was in a hospital bed at the General Hospital Nyeri when the sentence was passed.

On February 18, 1957, the colonial government executed him. The hanging took place at the Kamiti Maximum Prison.

Former President Mwai Kibaki’s government recognized Kimathi as a national hero with a bronze statue erected on Kimathi Street in Nairobi.