I expect flags at half mast and 3 days of mourning for this great hero

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
You called out to our country
And you whispered to those in pain
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Loveliness we've lost
These empty days without your smile
This torch we'll always carry
For our nation's golden child
And even though we try
The truth brings us to tears
All our words cannot express
The joy you brought us through the years

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned our long before
Your legend ever will

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart

Goodbye England's rose
From a country lost without your soul
Who'll miss the wings of your compassion
More than you'll ever know

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Candle in the Wind '97
Elton John

Songwriters: Elton John / Bernie Taupin
Candle in the Wind '97 lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

... and went on to DO something about it when he did.

And true to his kuga na gwika (do or die) traits of doing things, he gave his everything unlike ......

Therein lies @Limanika's expectations for the Flags to fly at half mast.

Of course, the Kamwana Ngaament, being a continuation of the MzeroOne Project, will ignore this request.

May the good Lord rest Stanley Matiba in eternal peace.

Matiba is the father of 2nd liberation. Though jaramogi had been in the trenches for decades, it took matiba's charisma and wealth to force moi to accept. In the process he spent his fortune, lost his health. Of course there were other dynamics that converged at the time e.g. end of cold war, to aid the process, but all the same he is the catalyst we needed. As for collaboration with colonialists b4 independence, opinion is still divided. We needed some to work with mzungu for strategic reasons, provided it was not extreme

I like the disagreements here..

We must question the role of our heroes. Even Winnie Mandela's legacy is oft questioned

I have always wondered how it would have been if he had not been rigged out of the 1988 Kanu polls

Let me a bit annoying! if it wasn't for the Mlolongo debacle of 88 or there around that knocked out akina matiba from posts in Kanu - we wouldn't be celebrating him. Oginga Odinga and Co. Akina Koigi, Anyona e.t.c. were in the trenches already.

Mau Mau waged a rebellion against the British rule but they were overwhelmed. The rebellion messed up the agikuyu forever as they turned on each other.
Independence was bound to come with or without Mau Mau just like multiparty democracy would come with or without Matiba

Very true same like you getting kids without conjugal at child bearing age!

What about countries that didn't have "mau mau" and still got independence around the same time as us/Kenya?

Seems many do not know our history. Am reminded of the time, in the wilderness, Israelites started questioning moses why he ever got them out of Egypt. The story of mau may starts in 1920s when harry thuku formed kca to agitate for gikuyu land rights. That didn't work and elders sent Kenyatta to London in early 1930s to directly engage the British govt for return of the gikuyu land forcibly taken by the wazungu. Kenyatta would stay there till mid 1940s and came back empty handed. At this point the elders felt only option left was to take arms to take back their land. So, in the first instance, mau mau was not about independence but 'return of gikuyu land forcibly taken away from them. Without the struggle, maybe we would have ended up like Zimbabwe