Mukami Kimathi, the widow of Dedan Kimathi, the leader of Kenya’s Mau Mau’s died yesterday.
Ms Kimathi died in a Nairobi hospital after being admitted after suffering from breathing problems.
Her husband was captured, tried and executed by the brutal British colonial government in 1956 and was buried at the Kamiti prison on the outskirts of the city.
Kenya’s President William Ruto paid tribute to Mrs Kimathi earlier today for having “courageously withstood the brutality of colonial oppression, proudly wore the scars of the battle and bore the terrible losses of war with admirable fortitude”.
Deputy Kenyan President Rigathi Gachagua described Ms Kimathi as “the mother of our liberation struggle and a beacon of hope surrounding the freedom fighters and their descendants”.
In January, she was barred from leaving a hospital where she had been admitted after her family was unable to pay their bills.
She was only discharged later after the president paid the outstanding £5,800 bill.
She had also been campaigning for the exhumation of the remains of her husband from prison so he could be reburied at his home.
But the long search for the exact spot where he was buried has proved to be futile.