Betrayal to his ideals led Ngugi to choose cremation

Late Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o. [Courtesy]

Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s cremation wish is not just personal—it’s political. Like Wangarĩ Maathai, Matiba, and others before him, his final act is a protest against a nation that betrayed its ideals and heroes.

In death, they chose to disappear, leaving Kenya to reckon with its silence. Their vanished graves mark not absence, but indictment. Even in cremation, they burn with defiance.