By WAINAINA NDUNG’U

Kenya: A Mau Mau general said to have brought down British colonial warplanes during the fight for independence is dead.

Ndungu wa Gicheru, 85, succumbed to complications from injuries he had suffered while fighting in the war of independence in the Aberdare forest in the 1950s on Wednesday evening.

His family now says he deserves a State funeral. He joins the growing list of war veterans who will not enjoy compensation promised by the former colonial masters.

His second wife, Hellena Wangechi, 66, said the freedom fighter succumbed to pain in his leg where a bullet was lodged during his capture in 1956. He had been bedridden for the last one year, according to his family, which lives at Gataragwa village in Kieni West District, over 60 kilometres outside Nyeri town.

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“Mzee’s condition worsened yesterday evening and we decided to take him to Mathari Mission Hospital. We did not get there as he died on the way,” Wangechi said at their home where a few villagers and friends had started converging for funeral arrangements. Theuri Njugi Kimbo (General Kimbo), 90, said the deceased was among the first youths who decided to take up arms and fight from the Aberdare forest.