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Elder Lister
Tiras Murage Kimathi, the first man to take Dedan Kimathi’s picture after his arrest in 1956, displays the iconic photo of the freedom fighter.
What you need to know:
- The two Kimathis’ relationship dated back years when Mr Murage took mathematics lessons from the anti-colonialism fighter at Ihururu primary school.
- Mr Murage loved spending time marvelling at the beauty of nature and had worked at several forest conservation departments.
Larry Walters, the husband of Murage’s daughter, Ms. Eunice Wangechi, who lives in the United States, told the nation the photographer passed away last Friday.
“On behalf of the family, I wanted you inform you that he passed away on Friday at the age of 90. Dad was in declining health for some time due to heart problems. It wasn’t Covid related. We’re still working out the funeral details,” he said.
Mr. Murage was known as the Kenyan who photographed Mau Mau hero Dedan Kimathi just before he was taken to prison by police officers on October 21, 1956.
”Kimathi smiled and I pressed the button. I got maybe two pictures and the next thing I knew I was on the ground and I was being kicked,” he said in a 2018 interview with the Nation.
Fight for Independence
He was injured when a white police officer hit him repeatedly with the butt of his gun. He would also have been shot if a comrade hadn’t stopped the police officer from shooting him in the head.
Besides being namesakes to the legendary Dedan Kimathi, the relationship between the two Kimathis was enough Years back when Mr. Murage was taking math lessons from the anti-colonial fighter at Ihururu Elementary School. Those were the peaceful years before the guerrilla war and independence struggle.
Mr Murage, a retired forest ranger, loved spending time taking in the beauty of nature and had worked in several forest protection agencies.
In fact, he was working in the Forestry Department in Embu when the state of emergency was declared by the colonial government and moved to Kabege Forest in Ihururu in 1952.
He was so close to Dedan Kimathi that one day he at his workplace in Ihururu, received a letter from his old teacher asking him to supply stationery and stamps to support the Mau Mau war effort. Dedan Kimathi then ordered his former student to burn the letter after reading it.
He later became the forest ranger in charge of Karura Forest Station, where he is in charge of planting and tending the trees in the arboretum would. as well as the Karura, Kiambu and Kamiti forests. During his service in Karura he met the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Wangari Mathai.
Funeral plans underway
Their interaction must have touched Prof. Mathai’s heart as she mentioned her book Unbowed (on page 128), in which he is referred to as Kimathi wa Murage.
An excerpt from Mr. Murage’s CV reported this interaction.
“Prof. Wangari Mathai visited my Karura station to buy seedlings, gave her a lecture on the then ongoing Nairobi Greenbelt program and thus got the initiative for her Greenbelt movement,” he noted.
Funeral plans are in underway Despite travel complications related to Covid-19, family members living abroad are hoping to travel to Kenya to say goodbye to him.
Mr. Murage’s death comes three and a half years after that of his wife, Grace Wanjiru Kimathi, who died in June 2018. He will be buried next to his late wife on their farm in Ihururu on January 25th.
