Late Dedan Kimathi's wife, Mukami is dead

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua when he visited Mukami Kimathi (right) in the hospital. [Rigathi, Twitter]

Mukami Kimathi, the wife of the late freedom fighter Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, is dead.

Mukami died aged 96 while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital where she was admitted on Thursday night after developing breathing difficulties, according to her daughter Nyawira Kimathi.

Her body has since been moved to Lee Funeral Home, Nairobi.

She was among Mau Mau freedom fighters detained at Kimathi Maximum Prison during Kenya's struggle for independence.

Mukami will be remembered for pushing the State to locate her husband's body, which is interred in an unmarked grave at Kamiti Maximum Prison, and accord him a hero's burial at their Njambini home.

Kimathi was captured by the British colonial government in 1956 and executed in 1957 at the prison.

Both Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta's regimes unsuccessfully made attempts to locate Kimathi's remains.

In 2003, Kibaki's government formally registered the Mau Mau movement and repealed colonial-era legislation that outlawed it and labelled members terrorists.

A beloved figure, politicians including Azimio leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua paid homage to the heroine for her active role during the Mau Mau struggle.

In January, the Kenya Kwanza administration cleared her medical bill following an uproar after she took to social media to appeal for help after she was detained at a city hospital for not paying Sh1.3 million.