How cunning attempt to demonise Mau Mau fighter Dedan Kimathi fell flat

By KAMAU MUTUNGA

“I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies.”

These words by South African freedom icon Nelson Mandela may as well have been said by Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, the leader of Mau Mau. But unlike Mandela who was charged with a capital offence and escaped with a life term, Kimathi was hanged by the colonial government in 1957.

Although he is admired as a national hero and honoured with streets and a monument in his name, colonial officers saw him as a terrorist who did not deserve to live.

The saying that one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter rings true for Kimathi.

To colonial officers, Kimathi answered to several titles: A former primary school teacher, a dairy and timber clerk, a pig farmhand with a missing left index finger, a trader in hides and an admired but violent thief.

The enduring picture of Kimathi released by colonialists is one of a captive lying in bed, looking helpless in shackles as he lay in hospital after his capture in 1956. And according to colonial policeman Ian Henderson, who led the campaign to capture the Mau Mau leader, Kimathi was no more than a heartless, cunning man who would do anything to stay in power.

 In Manhunt in Kenya, Philip Goodhart’s 1958 account of how Henderson hunted down his quarry, the policeman paints a picture of a domineering terrorist who enjoyed stolen loot from his haven in the forest.

Kimathi had to die if guns in the war of independence from British rule in Kenya were to be silenced.

Never mind that according to imperialists “more Europeans were killed in traffic accidents within the city limits of Nairobi than were murdered by terrorists in the whole of Kenya”. Terrorists refered to Mau Mau insurgents.

Recent research shows that up to 100,000 Africans died in the war for independence. They were either killed in battle, tortured to death, died in concentration camps or in the course of slave labour. In an attempt to cover up the brutality, the official narrative by the colonialists was that 11,000 Mau Mau were killed, along with just 32 settlers.

The Mau Mau army Kimathi commanded “killed nearly a hundred times as many Africans as Europeans,” claims Henderson in Manhunt in Kenya. The book details how Henderson employed Mau Mau turncoats in betraying, tracking and capturing Kimathi, who was tried and hanged, effectively ending the Mau Mau war and with it the State of Emergency.

The book, slight colonial soot and all, paints a disturbingly spotted picture of Kimathi, the freedom hero nicknamed ‘Njangu’ (rough and treacherous) for being proficiently endowed in the violence department. 

Viciousness aside, his lack of conscience, claims Henderson, and dabbling in “subversive nocturnal undertakings” besides spearheading massive oathing ceremonies, made Kimathi popular in Central Kenya.

Violent theft

That violence and successful thieving were regarded as virtues, says Henderson. But during the struggle, Mau Mau, a guerilla outfit that had no crops of its own in the forest, depended on well-wishers for supplies of medicine, food and arms. When these did not come easy, they robbed, often violently. For those who supported the cause, this was a necessary sacrifice.

Henderson claims Kimathi’s thieving ways were even more attractive considering his educational attainments were “pitiably small by Western standards, but they were substantial in comparison with his fellow Kikuyu”.

The colonial officer was nicknamed Kinyanjui. He spoke fluent Kikuyu. Although he went to attend The Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School), his family lived on the outskirts of Nyeri and among the many titbits gathered were that Kimathi’s age mates considered him a coward.

Henderson, described by British media as a sadist, died in Bahrain, where he was employed by the regime in the 1970s after leaving Kenya. There, he led the secret police in a campaign of terror. Nicknamed “The Butcher of Bahrain”, he commanded a team that ransacked villages, sexually abused women and used power drills to maim prisoners.

Godly fighter

“On many occasions they are said to have detained children without informing their parents, only to return them months later in body bags,” The Observer reported. It was claimed that the UK stalled attempts to prosecute him for fear of upsetting the Arab nation. Before his death, there was a strong campaign to have him tried for the crimes.

In Kenya, Henderson led a chillingly similar campaign against Mau Mau and innocent villagers, much to the embarrassment of the colonial regime. Earlier this year, the UK issued an apology for atrocities committed against the freedom fighters.

When he came of age, Kimathi, then 18, was circumcised at the Ihururu dispensary.

Kimathi had compensating qualities, according to Henderson. He was a magnetic, compelling orator who at “times seemed to believe the Bible was especially written for him”.

That his grandmother dipped her finger in a goat’s horn before she died, and sprinkled water on his head, made Kimathi believe God had “guided his grandmother’s hand and had chosen him to be the head of the whole tribe,” claims Henderson.

Celebrated hero

Kimathi thus demoted or transferred any present and clear competition in his army, according to Henderson.

Stolen loot like wooden beds, new clothes and medicine aside, Kimathi was guarded by 60-plus handpicked Mau Mau devotees.

This life of “luxury” while fighting for freedom dwindled in scale as more Mau Mau fighters were captured by the colonial army, police and home guards. “The ‘passive wing’ of Mau Mau in reserves, towns and farms were broken by imperial forces,  gradually thinning supplies of information, arms, food, clothing and medicine to the ‘military wing’ in the forests.

Mau Mau raids progressively dwindled, and when they happened, arrests and casualties escalated. Kimathi allegedly issued a raft of 30-plus petty offences, among them no eating before food was shared, speaking in his presence without permission, failing to pray to Ngai (God) and sleeping with Mau Mau girls (when you were not a field marshall or general).

Home guard police Ndirangu shot Kimathi thrice, missing twice before his target was found lying in a bush, his leopard skin coat and dreadlocks spread out.

Historians say a propaganda war that painted Mau Mau in bad light, as well as concealed truth about the deaths of innocents, was aimed at winning support back in London. However, one could say the attempt to demonise Kimathi failed, as he is now a celebrated hero.