When freedom hero Dedan Kimathi sought truce with colonial rulers

Dedan Kimathi arrested

Fallen freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi tried to reach out to the colonial government for a possible truce before he was arrested.

Letters produced in court in his defence, reveal that the freedom fighter was trying to surrender to authorities when he was captured.

The letters, part of the documents handed over to Kimathi’s widow Loise Mukami by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga on Thursday, indicate he was trying to get an amicable solution to the fight between the Mau Mau movement and the British Government.

The freedom fighter, in his testimony before the court, said over a letter he had written to the then government, had split the Mau Mau fighters.

He testified that he obtained the pistol he was arrested with from Macharia Kinanya for self-defence after disagreements with other freedom fighters over letters he had written to the government seeking a truce.

“We began becoming unfriendly and that is the reason I wrote the letter to the government... Macharia told me when he gave me the pistol that the enmity has grown enormous between us and those who objected to the letter,”  he said.

At the time of his arrest, Kimathi had been in the forest for four years.

Quest for peace

In his letter, Kimathi said: “How can a rat come out of the pit while the cat watches to catch it?...After three days in prayers let the tribes of Kenya with a born pure lamb make sacrifices, after doing all this we both end the war peacefully.” Meaning he was ready to lay down his gun for peace.

He told the court that he failed to surrender at first because of a Sh10,000 bounty on his head.

Kimathi said he eventually decided to surrender on October 20, 1956.

He told the court he was a fugitive as he did not support the colonial master and had fallen out with his colleagues. At the time he was arrested he had only five followers, he said.

Then Nyeri District Commissioner confirmed receiving Kimathi’s letter on June 2, 1954. “You are at liberty to surrender with your men,” his reply letter read in part.

But trial judge K Connor did not believe in the freedom fighter’s narrative that he intended to surrender when he was captured by the home guards.

“I find as facts that he was returning to the forest when he was challenged and that he made off as fast as he could and did his best to escape,” the judge ruled.

In his judgement dated November 27, 1956, Connor ruled that the surrender story was a fabrication to escape sentencing. “The accused has not shown on balance of probabilities that he had a reasonable excuse for possession of arms. I agree with a unanimous opinion of the assessors and convict the accused on both counts”.

The court, led by three Kenyan assessors, had on October 26, 1956 found him guilty.

The judge, however, was remorseful for holding the trial before Kimathi had recovered from the gunshot wound. “I desire to say that I regret the necessity of holding this trial before the accused was fully recovered from his wound,” Connor ruled.

Clothes and a watch worn by the former freedom fighter when he was captured have never been returned to his family.

“My husband was wearing a watch and a leopard skin when they arrested him. These belongings have never been returned to us,” Mukami said on Thursday when she received the file from Justice Mutunga.

It is still unclear whether his belongings are still preserved or were shared out as mementos.

The court records reveal that Kimathi also had a hat and a jacket. Police inspector John Blackman told the court he received 12 items taken from the freedom fighter. A maize cob was also handed to the court as an exhibit of the items Kimathi had in possession at the time of his capture.

Then Nyeri CID officer John Charles produced the clothes in court.

The trial was conducted when the field marshal was sickly. In court, he complained of a severe headache and abnormal noises in his ears.

But the doctor who diagnosed him testified that the trial could continue since “he found no symptoms”.

The doctor, a provincial physician called Peter Turner, told the court that the headache could be have been connected to his leadership. “This headache could be connected with his general state.

Whether these symptoms exist or not depend on whether he is telling the truth or not,” he said but admitted that he never took his temperature levels to check on whether indeed he was sickly.

The judge at this time was occupied on his gestures to rule out any pain. “The accused is animated and smiling, gesticulating. Obviously well and not in any pain for discomfort,” the judge noted.

 Bullet wounds

Kimathi was read his charges on a hospital bed where he had been taken for treatment of his bullet wounds. It is at the hospital bed that the court ordered that he should be remanded.

The freedom fighter had also complained of similar symptoms before, but the physician  had ruled out the possibility of the pain interfering with the hearing. When he complained of a pain on the hip he had been shot, the court found “it  new” and ruled that he was fit to continue with the case.

“This  pain of which he now complains is something new. I heard of it this morning. In my opinion, the accused is fit to continue now,” the court heard.

The court papers also revealed Kimathi’s life before he went into the forest.

According to prosecution witness Mwangi Kahagi, the former freedom fighter worked as a clerk at a milk co-operative society.

“I know Dedan Kimathi. I first saw him when he was in the dairy. He was a clerk in the North Tetu Co-operative Society dairy and I used to see him when I used to bring milk from the reserve,” Kahagi testified.