According to human rights groups, political prisoners are a fact of life in Kenya. Koigi wa Wamwere, one of the country's most widely known prisoners, had to wait years to attend his father's funeral, delayed until his release. A Kikuyu tradition requires the first-born son's presence. University student Karimi Nduthu, a member of the grassroots group Release Political Prisoners, was buried at his family's compound in 1996. The organization and his family believe Nduthu's beating death was engineered by the government.