A combined effort between President William Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has come to the rescue of Mukami Kimathi, widow of freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi.
Mama Mukami Kimathi, 101, was a ‘guest’ of Nairobi hospital after she was detained over an unpaid bill amounting to Sh1.3 million. She was admitted to the facility on January 5, 2023, suffering from pneumonia and age-related complications and had been treated and discharged on January 12..
On Sunday evening, Deputy President Riggy G visited her at the hospital after he arrived in Nairobi from Nyanza from where he had accompanied the president on a two-day working tour. He was accompanied by some MPs from Mt Kenya.
DP Gachagua affirmed that President Ruto had cleared the bill, allowing Mukami Kimathi to go back home.
“Thank you, President William Ruto, for coming through for Mukami Kimathi and her family. You are a true and genuine friend of our people. Be blessed abundantly. Always,” Gachagua tweeted.
“We have cleared the bill and wish her complete recovery. We were not aware of her predicament as me and the president have been on a western Kenya tour and this was only brought to our attention yesterday,” Gachagua said at the hospital.
DP Gachagua also faulted the post-independence government saying they had betrayed Mau Mau veterans by hatching a scheme that saw land formerly under the white settlers appropriated by colonial collaborators.
“We are urging those who unfairly benefited from land tracts of currently idle land where only gazelles and antelope roam to give up some of it – even if just half. This cannot continue to be the situation when descendants of the Mau Mau remain landless, burying their loved ones in public cemeteries and living a life of squalor and anguish,” Gachagua said.
The DP noted that negotiations are ongoing on the case of Mau Mau veterans and their descendants and would soon come to a fruitful conclusion.
“Like with the freedom fighters’ modus operandi, the planning and execution of this plan will be discreet until the last minute,” he said.
