Rev John Gatu, the Clergyman who Revealed Secrets of Kenyatta's Mau Mau Oaths Dies at 92

The ex-moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Rev John Gatu, who is remembered for spilling the beans on Mau Mau oaths during the Jomo Kenyatta era has died at the age of 92.

Close family sources told the Nation that the veteran cleric passed on at The Karen Hospital on Thursday. Gatu had been admitted at the Nairobi hospital after he suffered a heart attack on May 2 at his home.

The veteran cleric will be remembered for his sincerity in speaking against the excesses of previous regimes especially that of former President Daniel Moi.

Last year, in an explosive autobiography known as Fan into Fame, Gatu revealed damning details of the Mau Mau oath ceremonies in the Mount Kenya implicating Kenya's founding President Kenyatta.

His niece, Chebet Karago, eulogized him as an honest and loving man who always put his faith ahead of his actions. “Uncle was the loving father of many including people from other churches who called him Dad. When my cousin fled the country my aunt and uncle took care of his family and when his driver died, he fostered his children,” she said.

“He lived a simple life in his two bedroom house in Karen. A person who knew his true home was elsewhere with his God.”

Gatu was the founder of the Jitegemee spirit in the PCEA church, and he introduced the Moratorium Debate that called for suspension of foreign aid to African churches to promote growth and self-reliance and which led him to be branded a West“missionary hater”.