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By Portus Chege
Nairobi, Kenya: Hanna Wanjiku Murogo, who recently died at the age of 95, was a veteran of the liberation struggle who resolutely suffered countless body blows in defence of her motherland from invasion by voracious foreigners.
Mau Mau Matriarch’s final bow shines light on Kenyan Freedom Fighters’ plight The plight of the Kenya Freedom Fighters, affectionately known as Mau Mau ( a Swahili acronym for Enter Africans, Exit Whites) has been sharply illuminated in the recent passing away of one of the last of the group on May 29, 2025.
Led by the fiery Dedan Kimathi, Mau Mau, alias the Kenya Land Freedom Army (KLFA), was cobbled together as a platform for patriotic Kenyans to defend their land from confiscation and exploitation by the colonialists. Though successful in the end, as Kenya finally secured independence from Britain in 1963, not before bloodshed.
Born at Kiamwangi Village in Gatundu, Kiambu County in the populous Central Kenya, the nonagenarian was a living symbol of the double jeopardy suffered by Mau Mau fighters, especially those who lived to tell tales of the struggle.
First, their untold physical and psychosocial suffering at the hands of British soldiers during the war in defence of Kenyan land from expropriation by colonialists tugs at the heart. Second, as if that did not suffice, the Mau Mau liberators, having secured the country’s independence in 1963 from British imperialism, were neglected by successive governments, including that of none other than President Jomo Kenyatta, who refused to officially recognize the role of the liberation movement in the freedom struggle.
Even within their ranks, there are Trojan horses. Gitu Kahengeri is said to have selfishly made away with all the compensation money meant for the Mau Mau Veterans.
“He is not even a genuine Mau Mau,” Wanjiku told this writer shortly before her death. “Mau Mau is more than anyone who was not involved will ever understand.” Wanjiku was the chairperson of the Matigari Mau Mau Freedom Fighters.
During the Mau Mau revolt, Wanjiku, who was imprisoned for a year at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, together with Wambui wa Mbiu Koinange, was instrumental together with others in delivering supplies to those at the warfront. It was during one of those daring efforts that she was arrested in the forests of the Great Rift Valley and jailed by the colonialists.
A towering liberator, Wanjiku had a sharp object forcefully inserted in her sacred area, but was nonetheless not blessed with a child. She adopted four– three boys and a girl, who devoutly took care of her till her demise.
The best send-off, therefore, that Kenya can accord this iconic woman is for the government to, first, unequivocally recognize the Mau Mau’s inestimable role in Kenya’s Independence struggle, and, second, fully cater for the surviving Mau Mau Veterans and their entire families.
