Youth demand Dedan Kimathi museum at Kamiti Prison

Saying that they are the current Mau Mau in Kenya, the youth in Nairobi are demanding that the government build a Dedan Kimathi museum, and a monument in Kamiti maximum security prison to replace the notorious jail where Kimathi is believed to have been buried in an unmarked grave. They were speaking after coming back from Nyeri to commemorate the Dedan Kimathi Day on 18 Feb, a day when Kimathi was killed by the British colonialists in 1957.

They accused the government of using Kimathi and other Mau Mau heroes for political gain and then of celebrating the day in Nyeri's Kimathi University away from the limelight in the capital city Nairobi.

They urged the Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture, whose officials were at the event, to consider bringing Kimathi Day to the city's Uhuru Park or Uhuru Gardens Heroes’ Corner. They demanded that Kimathi Day be made a recognised national holiday in Kenya to truly honour him.

The youth also want a community centre in Kirinyaga where the Mau Mau were fighting to be the place for all pan-Africanists and revolutionaries like Kimathi to live as ‘it is a home in Zion, near the dwelling place of Jah.’

‘This place will be like Shashamane that Emperor Haile Sellasie gave to the African people in the diaspora to come and live. So we are going to create our own here in Kenya. We don't have to go to Shashamane.’

Meanwhile, in other news, speaking at Kimathi University the following day after Kimathi Day, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka said that the government is now ready to start another attempt to search Dedan Kimathi's unmarked grave at Kamithi Prison.

This is welcome news and the youth reiterated that they must push the government to accord Kimathi the fitting status within Kenyan society and not just for political gains by riding on Kimathi's appeal to the youth. They cited the new constitution that guarantees Mashujaa Day as the force to drive their will.

'We also want to petition the government to make the African Liberation Day a national holiday on the 25th May.’

On 18 February a crowd gathered around Dedan Kimathi’s statue on Friday at around 9am. A developing spectacle had pulled them near the steel bar protected area along Kimathi Street, Nairobi.

Dreadlocked men and women were chanting and reciting poems as they waved flags towards the statue, an act that bore uncanny resemblance to idol worship. Kimathi is also wearing thick locks, which run to the shoulders, military regalia with one hand bearing a rifle and the other a dagger. They hailed him as the uncelebrated freedom fighter, a warrior whose life was snuffed out 54 years ago on Friday.

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* Dennis Dancan Mosiere is a performance poet/writer based in Nairobi and currently a Fahamu Pan African Fellow For Social Justice.
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