Sh2 billion plan to settle veterans of Mau Mau struggle

Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi's widow Mukami Kimathi is carried by pilgrims during a past event. She is the patron of Dedan Kimathi Foundation. [File, Standard]

As Kenyans mark the 56th Madaraka Day, veterans and descendants of Mau Mau freedom fighters have a new headache. For years, the remnants of the liberation struggle have clamoured with little success for reparation from the State and British governments for atrocities and dispossession they endured under colonial rule.

Now, a foundation run by the family of the late freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi claims to have a final solution -- cut the constant pleas and procure, using own proceeds, an expansive parcel of land to settle the landless veterans and their families. Dedan Kimathi Foundation, run by Kimathi’s daughter Evelyne Wanjugu, is undertaking a grandiose scheme to settle some 3,500 veterans on a 12,000 acre parcel of land in Rumuruti, Laikipia County at a cost of Sh2.3 billion.