Tiras Murage Kimathi, the first man to take Dedan Kimathi’s picture after his arrest in 1956, has died aged 90.
Larry Walters, the husband of Mr Murage’s daughter, Ms Eunice Wangechi, who lives in the US, told the Nation the photographer died last Friday.
“On behalf of the family, I wanted to inform you that he passed away on Friday at age 90. Dad was in declining health for some time due to heart issues. It was not Covid-related. We are still working on the funeral details,” he said.
Mr Murage was known for being the Kenyan who took photos of the Mau Mau hero Dedan Kimathi just before he was taken away by police officers to prison on October 21, 1956.
“Kimathi smiled and I clicked the button. I got maybe two pictures and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, being kicked,” he told the Nation in an interview in 2018.
Struggle for independence
He suffered injuries from the beating by a White police officer, who repeatedly hit him with the butt of his gun. He would also have been shot dead had a fellow officer not stopped the policeman from shooting him in the head.
Other than being namesakes with the legendary Dedan Kimathi, the two Kimathis’ relationship dated back years when Mr Murage took mathematics lessons from the anti-colonialism fighter at Ihururu primary school. Those were the peaceful years before guerrilla warfare and the struggle for independence.
A retired forester, Mr Murage loved spending time marvelling at the beauty of nature and had worked at several forest conservation departments.
In fact, he was working in the forestry department in Embu when the State of Emergency was declared by the colonial government in 1952 and was moved to Kabege forest in Ihururu.
So close was he to Dedan Kimathi that one day, at his workstation in Ihururu, he received a letter from his old teacher asking him to deliver stationery and postage stamps to aid the Mau Mau war effort. Dedan Kimathi then ordered his former pupil to burn the letter after reading it.
He later became the forester in charge of the Karura Forest Station, where he was mandated with planting and caring for the trees at the Arboretum, as well as the Karura, Kiambu and Kamiti forests. It was while on duty at Karura that he met the late Nobel peace prize winner Prof Wangari Mathai.
Burial plans underway
Their interaction must have touched Prof Mathai’s heart, as she mentioned him in her book Unbowed (on page 128), referring to him as Kimathi wa Murage.
An excerpt from Mr Murage’s curriculum vitae recounted this interaction.
“Prof Wangari Mathai visited my Karura Station to purchase seedlings, lectured to her on the then ongoing Nairobi Greenbelt Programme, hence got the initiative for her Greenbelt-Movement,” he noted.
Burial plans are underway. Despite Covid-19-related travel complications, family members living abroad hope to be able to travel to Kenya to bid him farewell.
Mr Murage’s death comes three and 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 BY DAILY NATION