How Nabongo Mumia went from king to chief

The road to kingship is punctuated by many pitfalls with many slips between the throne and the coronation, as many heirs have discovered in their dramatic quest peppered with hilariously absurd intrigues.

When a distraught queen mother, Wamanya, lost her first five babies soon after their birth, she defiantly challenged fate by throwing her newest son in 1849 to a rubbish bin, locally known as makhoha.

This is how one of the 18 princes almost lost his silver spoon. He earned the name Makhoha, which would later be dominated by that of his saviour, an Abamia from Teso, later corrupted to Mumia.

The reigning king then, Shiundu, had 13 wives and 18 sons, all with equal chance of being kings, although the Nabongo had powers to name his successor.

Although traditions at Wanga kingdom, whose origin is traced by oral history to Egypt, dictated that the eldest son was the automatic heir, this was not always the case, as mothers and elders at times plotted palace coups.

Wamanya was keen to have her son Makhoha or Mumia promulgated as king although Nabongo Shiundu had his own ideas of who he wished to succeed him.

Folklore has it that although Mumia was an ordinary youth with no unique qualities, he is alleged to have killed a lion alone, a feat that endeared him to his father’s subjects.

Wamanya tricked the most popular candidate, Luta, to dress in the traditional Likutusi (royal regalia) made of leopard skin and colubus monkey skins, saying since his father was sickly and barely ventured out, he would not mind.

Wit and trickery

"As soon as he donned the royal regalia, word quickly spread that he had declared himself king. Shiundu swiftly disinherited Luta and threatened to enthrone a woman," Ali Wamanya, the Nabongo’s official historian explains.

The council of elders prevailed upon the king to appoint Mumia, who, they argued, was a safer bet as he had already demonstrated his bravery.

This was not the first time a king had ascended to the coveted throne using wit and trickery.

In early days of Nabongo Wanga, founder of Wanga kingdom, such trickery was still evident. His lived, according to unrecorded history, between 1050 AD and 1140 AD and his remains are buried at Matungu, near Mumias Sugar Company.

One case involves Wanga’s son, Wabala, who was a victim of his brother’s ambition. Murono, Wabala’s brother, delivered his brother to Samia, where he was killed.

Unknown to Murono, Wabala had been tipped about the impending attack and had sent his cousin, Mbatsa, to flee with the instruments of power, the copper bracelets that acted as the crown.

As he shed crocodile tears over the death of the king, Murono assumed the reign of power and for 18 years ruled without a crown.

He only knew Wabala’s wife had given birth to a son, Muswi, when a hippopotamus was killed and the special meat meant for the king, obwiramiro, was not delivered to him. He discovered Muswi had been delivered and crowned secretly.

"Murono was forced to flee to Bukhayo in Busia to escape the wrath of Nabongo Muswii who wanted to avenge his father’s killing, 18 years earlier," Wamanya adds.

Copper bracelet

In another dramatic palace coup around 1710, the ailing king Osundwa was tricked into disinheriting his favourite son Kweyu in favour of Wamukoya.

Kweyu had been sent by his father on a royal mission accompanied by a group of elders but when they were served, the prince did the unthinkable.

"He took the chickens’ thighs, a delicacy for elders, and happily munched away. The entourage sarcastically encouraged him to take the gizzard too and he foolishly obliged," Ramadhan Nyangweso, a Nabongo council of elder in charge of history explains.

The council of elders vowed to teach the upstart a lesson and got the chance when the ailing Nabongo Osundwa sent for Kweyu from his deathbed for the final blessing.

The elders conspired against Kweyu, who was not around the palace at the time, ensuring he never got the message. When the king enquired about his whereabouts, the elders said Kweyu was too busy pretending to be the king.

The heartbroken king declared Wamukoya king, while Kweyu was to learn of his father’s death and the new king later. He was so angry that he did not attend the burial.

However, as Wamukoya was taking the king’s remains to Matungu for burial in readiness for his coronation, Kweyu ambushed the burial party near the Nzoia River and hijacked the bones.

"He also stole the copper bracelet frustrating any attempts to crown Wamukoya. He kept the bracelets at Eshimoli. Two years later, Wamukoya outwitted Kweyu when he sent a spy who stole the crown. Finally he was enthroned," Nyangweso says.

When the white men came into contact with Nabongo Mumia who ascended the throne when he was 33 years, they were mesmerised by the power he had over his subjects.

VR Dundas, one of the earliest administrators posted to Mumias, then wrote about the king: "All kinds of superstitions are woven around Mumia’s copper bracelet by the people who regard it with greatest awe and reverence. The king can cause death of a person by striking together the bracelets and pronouncing the death of the person."

The administrator was also intrigued by the royal spears, which he said were of great age and peculiar pattern and workmanship unlike any other he had encountered in Africa.

He claimed that when the spears were taken outside the house and pointed at certain directions, they could cause strife in the Kavirondo country.

But Mumia did not rely on superstition alone to keep his enemies at bay, as he surrounded himself with Nubian mercenaries who were dreaded for their military prowess.

He also used the services of Arab traders, who had been passing his kingdom on their way to Uganda, some of whom he later elevated to his agents.

In 1902, in a bid to cement relationships, the British invited Mumia to attend the coronation of King Edward VIII, but he was allegedly misinformed by his Arab and Swahili advisers that if he went to Britain, he would never return.

As a result of this advice, the king changed his mind just before he boarded a ship to London. It would not be until 1909 that the British made the king a paramount chief.

Earlier when Bishop Hannington passed Mumia’s kingdom in 1885 on his way to Buganda, the king advised him to approach it from the western side.

He was further given porters to escort him to Busoga but when he defied Kabaka Mwanga he was killed.

"Only one man, Otsuolo Ingutia, returned to narrate the tragic news of Bishop Hannington’s death," Wamanya explains.

Sexual favours

His friendship with the Arabs was at times comical. When the king bought a bicycle in 1910, he had no way of repairing a puncture until an Arab came to his aid.

The shrewd Arab trader inflated the flat tyre and later convinced the king that he had used magical powers. An impressed Nabongo gave him a herd of cows as a show of gratitude.

Latter day ‘bicycle doctors’ within the kingdom craftily deflated the tyres and demanded to be paid with bulls and beautiful girls as the Nabongo’s brides to avert the king’s wrath.

Owing to the unpopularity of his agents, Mumia’s superiority was later downgraded, transforming him from a king into a chief, while the then Nyanza PC, John Ainsworth, ultimately sacked the agents and retired him as a paramount chief.

"The king was not amused. He could not understand how he was being forced to forfeit a throne he had inherited from his father long before the white men came," Nyangweso adds.

Simon Kenyanchui in Source: Makers of Kenya’s History, Nabongo Mumia, writes how Mumia struggled to maintain his ever dwindling kingdom.

The author cites the onslaught of colonialism on Mumia and how his tax agents became symbols of corruption, extorting money and demanding sexual favours in the name of the king until they were sacked by Ainsworth.

Mumia died on April 24, 1949 leaving behind 109 sons, 60 daughters, and 400 grandchildren. He died a disappointed king with the kingdom gone and his powers appropriated by the colonial administration, who paid him a pension of Sh250.

His remains lie at Matungu alongside those of other kings dating back more than 800 years ago although his descendants are just ceremonial figureheads

The current Nabongo, Peter Shitawa, also known as Mumia II is the 25th king of the Wanga kingdom whose political and economic power have been clipped by the current Constitution leaving him to preside over cultural festivals.

Historian John Osogo has however written that the Luhyas’ claims to have originated from present day Egypt in the Kush area are wild and need to be investigated.

—akareithi@standardmedia.co.ke