JM Kariuki’s widow recounts how he foretold his death

Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, popularly known as JM Kariuki, knew death was not far away.

He would tell his wife, Dorice Mwangi, that it was just a matter of when, not if, it would strike.

“These people will kill me anytime. Be prepared for that,” he would say during family meetings.

In fact, he was so certain he would be killed that he would tell Dorice that he would always call her before travelling anywhere and that the day he fails to do that, she should know that he was no more.

Sunday, March 2, marked the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

Dorice, now 82 years old, was the first wife to the politician. She told the Star at her home that looking back, the writing was on the wall.

From the shooting on his car at the City Mortuary roundabout to the regular warnings by people around him that all would not be well, JM was well prepared to meet his fate.

Those were long agonising days in January and February of 1975, she says. “It is hard knowing that your days are literally numbered,” Dorice adds.

And the threats to his life were brazen because sometimes the security agents guarding him relayed information to him.

“They would tell him to please be careful ‘because we were in a meeting the whole night where you were being talked about and how you can be slowed down, ” she said.

“But my good husband would not listen, often telling me that he was ready to die for the country. JM loved this country deeply and his conscience would not allow him to be compromised or close his eyes to poor leadership as millions sank into poverty.”

Dorice remembers that some people came to her home, telling him that a body had been found at the City Mortuary that she needed to identify.

Her suspicion that her husband was dead was confirmed immediately.

At the mortuary, she quickly identified him, but the security agents insisted that she give them a unique identifier.

“I told them to check his groins as there was a scar of fire injury JM had encountered as a boy,” she said.

“Thereafter we walked to Parliament and found MPs being told that JM had travelled to Zambia. That’s when I burst out in tears that his body is at the City Mortuary.”

After giving fiery speeches condemning land grabbing by senior politicians in the day, JM Kariuki often returned home to his favourite rice and chicken in the evening.

“He hated ugali with a passion. He did not even like seeing people eat it. It is because in detention, they were fed ugali regularly until he detested it. It reminded him of the suffering in the camps,” Dorice said.