Honia-Heal Afrika Initiative (HAI)

Sometime in November, 2022, Prof Peter Kagwanja happened to share with me this story that I find it relevant to my tribesmen and leaders of the Mt Kenya Region and precisely the Kenyan leaders and entire African people.

©️ Gĩtaũ wa Kũng’ũ 2024 (profgitauwakungu@gmail.com)

Contrary to Dr. Kang’ata’s Sunday 19th May, 2024 article that poised that, “historically, Kikuyu had no king,” the Agĩkũyũ remember of a king. That was before the council of elders, the Kĩama, came into being. Here’s the story.
Long time ago, before Ndemi na Mathathi, there was a young man in the Agĩkũyũ country by the name Gĩkũyũ.
He was grandson of Wanjirũ, matriarch of the Aanjirũ clan and great grandson of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi, the progenitors of the Gĩkũyũ community.
He was one of those rebellious kids nannied ‘kababa,’ whose mothers spare the rod too often. In his youth, he organised youths and together they formed a gang and marched to the beat of a different drum.

He masterminded the infamous revolt against the matriarchial government instituted by Gĩkũyũ the father of the tribe. At that time, women were in charge of the leadership of the Agĩkũyũ community and precisely, from the Aanjirũ clan because their matriach Wanjirũ was the first born daughter of the perfect nine, daughters of Gĩkũyũ and Mũũmbi.

The rebellious young Gĩkũyũ then overthrew the government in which his own mother was a leader and disbanded the matriarchial system to usher in juvenocracy. Whilst Matriarchial is the government by women, juvenocracy is government by the youth. How was his governance?

The rebel Gĩkũyũ ruled in a fist of iron, assisted by his youthful hoodlum of a contingent. They freezed the cockles of not only their parents’ hearts but also their elders. They ruled by imposing terror in the young Gĩkũyũ community in the manner of the Mũngĩkĩ gang before the late Hon John Mĩcũkĩ, then Minister of Internal Security in Mwai Kibaki’s 1st term presidency. (For your information, the policy and strategy used was designed by Prof Peter Kagwanja).
Well, they say fast come, fast go. The Agĩkũyũ say ‘njũka narua, ciũraga oo narua.’ Isn’t it the hare’s superciliocity that won the chameleon most beautiful bride? Before long, the people were tired.

Barely many counts of fortnight sunsets passed before the whole world of rebel Gĩkũyũ and his dog started engaging in drunken sprees and peeing on the elders.

The Agĩkũyũ sages said, Mũthuuri aikaire thĩ oonaga haraihu gwĩ kĩhĩĩ kĩ mũtĩ igũrũ- an elder seated sees further than a boy perched at the tallest tree’s top. During the dictator’s nights of drinking extravaganzas, the elders came together and started plotting a coup.
Drinking mũratina using long stick straws dipped in one pot, was popular those days. But it was only the elders who would do this. The rebel, drank in power overturned this tradition and started engaging his buffoons in the activity after long days of unleashing terror on the community. They were even engaging in the drinking with young girls they had forced to be their lovers.
Now, all that has a beginning has an end. One night, the elders made an agreement with one of the beautiful young girls that the despot Gĩkũyũ had forced to be his lover.
They struck a deal that saw him and all his generals drink from the same pot that the girl had already blessed with intoxicating herbs. After all had gone unconscious, they were then wrapped up and tied in chains.

The next day, the sun rose on the rebels tied together on tree stumps. Thus fell the oppressive, dictatorial and despotic juvenocracy reign of the first and the last king in the history of the Agĩkũyũ community.
The elders then took over power and in their wisdom, instituted a democratic gerontocracy. Thus was the birth of the Kĩama, a Gĩkũyũ council of elders that scrabbed off the government of one all-powerful ruler. Power was then devolved and important decisions were arrived at after a deliberation and concensus by the members of the Kĩama.
The council of elders were drawn from all the clans of the tribe. An unwritten constitution was also founded to ensure that for any elder to be admitted to the ruling community’s Kĩama, they had to be men of great wisdom, bravery and exhibited high moral and ethical standards; who had exemplarily graduated according to the community’s rites of passage instituted in the culture of the Agĩkũyũ community.
That was until the infamous entrance of the white man into the community and his destruction of the Agĩkũyũ systems of governance and culture.

Now  my people, Gĩkũyũ said, “Mũndũ mũũgĩ ndarĩ mĩheere ya ũhoro.” See you in the next episode.