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The death and subsequent burial of Mukami Kimathi, widow of renowned freedom fighter, Dedan Kimathi in Nyandarua County on May 13, marked the end of an era in Kenya’s shaky nationhood. Since her husband’s death in 1957, Mukami has epitomised the thankless struggle for independence in Kenya, and the frustrations and desperation of those who shed their blood and tears for progeny.

Instead of her burial being a day of remorse and shame for the betrayers – obviously comprising mainly the political class – the latter used it as an occasion for the usual showdown and show boarding.

Politicians who have stridden every nook and crook of this country for decades put up a gallant show of crocodile tears, may be even happy that their conscience would not haunt them any more for doing nothing to ensure Mukami saw the remains of her husband before her demise.

Admittedly, it is tricky. For all the good work he did for this country in his two terms, the late President Mwai Kibaki, who hailed from Nyeri County like Kimathi, never got to the bottom of this saga. Even his patriotism seemed to weaken in matters that touched a raw nerve like identifying Kimathi’s burial site and exhuming his body. Not that I am excusing him for the failure.

For decades, all the State has done is throw morsels to Kimathi’s family in order to hoodwink them from their rightful shares. Yes, it took Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to inadvertently let the cat out of the bag but, apparently, Kenya has its owners. And the major shareholders are not those who have really earned it. It is those who wait until the rest of us have painstakingly baked the bread.

The culture of betrayal in Kenya pervades every sector. In the corporate world, for instance, those who work their backsides off and the innovators who transform the fortunes of companies for the better hardly go laughing all the way to the bank. The well connected loungers literally steal the credit from the heroes, as the “workers” slog for them with just a pittance to keep them perennially salivating for more. 

Preachers have betrayed the trust of their gullible followers and manipulated them in shocking ways for financial benefit.

The hapless followers fast and save money so they can offer their savings to finance their shepherds’ lavish lifestyles. If people cannot find trust in places of worship, where will the meek turn to for redemption? In the words of the late reggae maestro Bob Marley, “total destruction is the only solution. Ain’t no use, no one can stop them now”!

We could go on about betrayal, down to personal relationships where people no longer have qualms to backstab their closest friends and relatives if that will put them ahead of the game. But we are digging our own graves with all this dishonesty. We shall soon cross the Rubicon to a haven of lies and deception. I doubt we have not arrived there yet, anyway.

As a society, we must atone for this outrage by taking care of the surviving nonagenarians who spent their prime years in the forest pushing out the colonisers. The fight for reparations started by president Kibaki should be revisited in earnest.

A story appearing in May 2022 in the Business Daily, reported that Mau Mau victims of State torture are yet to be given the Sh 2.8 billion compensation from the United Kingdom government.

We have lived a lie for too long and luck will surely run out. There is one demography that we have betrayed perennially and used them as political pawns. The number of jobless, restless, angry and hopeless youth is burgeoning. It is a powder keg that will surely blow up in our faces soon.

—  The writer is PhD student in International Relations