Dedan Kimathi was hanged by the British in 1957. Kenya won independence just six years later. A statue of him now stands in the center of Nairobi — on the same street where the British once executed him.
The Story of Dedan Kimathi
Born in 1920 in Kenya's Central Province, Kimathi Waciuri (later known as Dedan Kimathi) came of age under the brutal exploitation of British colonial rule. The British had stolen the fertile highlands from the Kikuyu people and forced Africans into landless labor on their own ancestral land.
In 1952, the Mau Mau uprising began. Kimathi became the movement's most effective military commander, organizing guerrilla forces in the forests of Mount Kenya. He created a sophisticated military structure and coordinated resistance across Kenya's highlands despite facing a heavily armed British colonial army.
The British declared a State of Emergency and deployed over 50,000 troops and police. They built detention camps that held over 150,000 Kenyans under torture and forced labor — conditions later described by historians as concentration camps. Still, Kimathi's forces fought on for years.
Captured in 1956 and hanged on February 18, 1957, Dedan Kimathi never broke. Kenya gained independence in 1963 — just six years after his execution. Today, a statue of Kimathi stands on Kimathi Street in Nairobi, on the very ground where the British once controlled the colony he helped liberate.
Color Dedan's Portrait
The Alphabet Book of Generals — Who Resisted White Supremacy and Won features a full-page coloring portrait of Dedan with a color guide and fun fact. Perfect for children ages 4–12 and Black history education.
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