Mau Mau fighter Kimunya Kamana . Long after independence, he became a powerful mayor for Nakuru, where he recently died a very poor man surviving on handouts.
Originally from Tetu, he was arrested in December 1952 for participating in Mau Mau oathing, but later on, he faced two other charges of murder.
Although the judge dismissed the murder charges against Kamana, he sentenced him to 18 years in prison for participating in Mau Mau activities.
He served his sentence in Nairobi, at the Coast and Kodiaga prison in Kisumu, where he said the prison authorities would unleash psychological torture on them by ordering them to exhume the bodies of leprosy victims.
After independence, he was among the founders of the Nakuru District EX Freedom Fighters Association (NDEFFO), a land buying company whose goal was to help ex-Mau Mau acquire land.
In one interview with the nation, he said he was able to aquire 1.6 acres at Engashura through this scheme.
But in a later interview he said he wasn’t able to claim 60,000 acres of land allocated to him by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in the Solio ranch despite paying the required fee of Kshs 30, 000 and getting an allotment letter. Maybe two different cases of land.
In the 80s, he was among Mwakenya agitators who were rounded up by state agents and detained. After his release, he vied for a councillor’s seat during the 1992 multiparty elections, which he won and went on to serve as Nakuru mayor for two terms.
He said as mayor his salary was Kshs 6000, which he used mostly to assist those in need. He added that he didn’t want to use his powerful position to enrich himself and lead a comfortable life. At the time of his death in 2024, he was living with his family in a one bedroom house in Kaloleni Nakuru.
Read More:
How Criminals Are Using Dating Platforms to Lure Victims- DCI Warns Kenyans
