Mathenge’s partner: I am living a contended life

A neat plantation of indigenous trees welcomes you to what would be Mau Mau freedom fighter the late General Stanley Mathenge’s home.

The throb of the long-forgotten General’s heartbeat is almost palpable in the tranquility that prevails across the 50-acre parcel of land located at Mweiga along the Nyeri-Nyahururu highway.

We meet his 89-year-old widow, Miriam Muthoni Mathenge, just as she walks back to the house from harvesting potatoes from her farm.

She may be aging, but her charm, eloquence and memory of events are still impeccable, as she plays back events  that happened during the liberation struggle.

Muthoni comes across as a jovial, healthy, elderly lady, relishing every fruit of the relentless battle for independence fought by her husband, believed to have sneaked to Ethiopia at the height of the struggle in 1955.

The splendor of the land notwithstanding, Muthoni is not a happy woman, especially whenever she learns that some co-liberators of her husband are still living as squatters.

“We should come to the aid of the heroes’ offspring, who are landless and still anguishing in poverty,” Muthoni says.

Muthoni, who speaks Kikuyu, stands above her age mates as a somewhat ‘digital granny’.

With a colour TV set, a set of couches – though old – and a gas cooker, Muthoni admits she is not poor.

“Poverty knocks on your doorstep when you sleep and refuse to work. I get my livelihood from my piece of land,” she says.

She also keeps livestock, which together with her daughter, Wanjiru Mathenge, whom she lives with, take good care of.

And to signify that she is an adherent of the vision of the country’s freedom fighters, Muthoni says she has prohibited her children from selling their land or cutting down a single tree.

“I have never leased out my land or even cut down any tree,” she says.

She says in 1964, the Government asked her to identify a piece of land she wanted to settle on, in honour of her husband. She chose the 50-acre parcel in Mweiga, which she alleged other freedom fighters had rejected as being too forested.

But like other aging freedom fighters, Muthoni is shocked to learn there is a kitty for the elderly.

“Our leaders must ensure the money reaches its rightful owners,” said Muthoni.

While narrating the history of her husband-the only known subordinate to freedom hero Dedan Kimathi’s– Muthoni recounts with nostalgia, the Wednesday Morning of September 25 1952, when Mathenge left home for the bush.

“Unknown guards stormed my home and beat me up as a white man, who was their leader pulled my hair asking where Mathenge was, however, I never betrayed my husband,” she recalls.

Her refusal to betray Mathenge, who was busy felling British soldiers in the bush, landed her in prison for eight years.

She says our freedom fighters set us free from the colonialists and is now calling upon Kenyans to embrace peace and keep the spirit of fighting for the good of our country.

“We are free from the colonialist, it is now important to embrace our unity, which our youngsters are yet to adopt,” she adds.