Dedan Kimathi biography launched

By Lydiah Nyawira and Mohammed Doyo

Nyeri, Kenya: Controversy greeted the launch of freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi’s biography detailing his social life and the struggles for independence.

The book, “Dedan Kimathi: The whole story” written by journalist Joseph Karimi faced a harsh reception from Evelyne Kimathi, the executive director of The Kimathi Foundation also daughter to the fallen hero, who said that her mother, Mukami Kimathi, did not approve the book and considered it as an attack on her late father’s reputation.

“The author says Kimathi never went to the Second World War in Burma India 1945, when we have soldiers who were with him in Burma and they are still alive but very old,” said Ms Kimathi.

During the launch, at The Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, as part of an international conference on African Liberation Efforts, the writer insisted that he was not claiming to have participated in the Mau Mau war.

“I was a young boy and this book has very detailed accounts from those who were there, those who I interviewed and participated in the war and narrates how Dedan Kimathi led the Mau Mau liberation struggle,” Mr Karimi said.