We have failed our freedom hero Kimathi

The Judiciary's move to make public court files on the proceedings of freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi's case is laudable.

The revelations in the records have been an eye-opener and assisted to uncover an important leaf of history to the current generation.

59 years ago, a man bubbling with conviction and belief that his motherland deserved freedom faced the guillotine in the hallways of Kamiti. He chose to pay the ultimate price for his freedom ideals.

At the centre of freedom agitation and fighting was the land question and the desire for self-governance. Not even the love for his young lovely wife Mukami, his lovely and caring aging mother and a young family could hold him back.

Fifty-three years after independence, Kimathi's widow now in her sunset years, failed by her aging body and eyesight is still longing to have her husband's remains to accord him a burial befitting a freedom hero.

This is a national shame.

Whereas the British colonisers rewarded home-guards who inflicted on Kimathi's body a bullet that led to his capture, the State is yet to reward the hero by according him a befitting burial. Kimathi's remains are still somewhere in Kamiti prison. The field marshal has known no freedom even in death.

Whereas there has been an attempt to fete Kimathi by efforts such as the establishment of his statute on Kimathi Street in the city and naming a university after him, a State burial will be the crowning moments for this legend.

In a brief ceremony at the Supreme Court grounds to present the file to his family, there was lack of proper representation from the national government.

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga's gesture to personally oversee the event is a serious testimony to his willingness and desire to see to it that Kimathi's remains are found.