How Baganda royalists found themselves a home in Nyanza

By Amos Kareithi

When an infallible king desires a beautiful woman that is what he gets. However, there is hell to pay if the woman defies the royal advances.

Such is the romantic drama that took place 217 years ago after Kabaka Jjunju made advances towards his brother’s wife.

Not used to being rebuffed, the king went mad with rage when Prince SSemakooriko’s wife rejected him and declared she was expecting a child.

The oral story has it that the king ordered his men to open the expectant mother’s womb so as to check whether she was indeed pregnant or was just feigning.

When the prince learnt of his wife’s death, he dispatched a contingent of his men to go and capture the king and be presented to him.

Horribly wrong

The mission went horribly wrong, as the men detailed to capture the king got excited and killed him. Prince Ssemakooriko was enraged.

Historical accounts claim he was so angry with the killers of his brother that he banished them from Buganda Kingdom.

These are the men that despite having royal blood were condemned to roaming the length and breadth of the mighty Buganda Kingdom and crossed the border of what is today known as Uganda.

Some of these people migrated to Rubirizi District, while others went to Teso and others went to as far as what is Kisumu in Kenya.

Henry Akello Ayot in his PhD thesis titled A History of the Luo Abasuba of Western Kenya from AD 1760-1940 however offers an alternative narrative. The scholar argues that the Abasuba are also to be found in Tanzania and had originated from southern Uganda before migrating to South Nyanza via Mfangano Islands.

He casts doubts about Buganda being the origin of the Abasuba, hypothesising that there were some descendants from the Busoga.

The oral narrative of Abasuba’s blood linkages with the Kabaka of Buganda are given credence by Siraje Lubwama in an article published by Uganda’s The Observer.

The writer retells Kabaka Jjunju’s sexual excesses and the rebellion it triggered in the over two centuries ago.

The consequences of this palace lust have had some far reaching effects which are still felt today in Kenya, more than 200 years after the sibling betrayal.

According to the Suba folklore, the people banished from the Buganda Kingdom first set foot on Kenyan soil led by Kiboye.

One of the few remaining elders conversant with the oral history, Moris Kasuku, Kiboye disembarked his canoe along the shores of Lake Vitoria in Mfangano Island. His brother Witewe who opted to remain in Mfangano Island as the latter proceeded towards Gwassi accompanied Kiboye.

 “ Kiboye had been attracted to the Gwassi hills that were visible from Mfangano Island. The hills, bathed by fluffy misty and enveloped by alluring dense vegetation were irresistible,”  explained  Kasuku.

Bitter lesson

However, when asylum seekers ascended the hills of Gwassi, they learnt a bitter lesson. “The original inhabitants of the area, the Luo had abandoned the area as it was inhabitable due to tsetse flies. They later learnt it had quite fertile soils.

“Our ancestors found the land in Gwassi unoccupied. They decided to farm along the valleys while those who settled near the lake became fishermen.” Kasuku explains.

And this, according to the elders, is how the runaway Baganda royalists found themselves a home in Nyanza, so far away from home.

Ironically, although the descendants of Kiboye can vividly remember how they first came to Kenya, they appear to have no ready answer as to the origin of their name, Suba. This notwithstanding, they would later interact with their neighbours, the Luo, and were later assimilated into their hosts’ culture.

Although the Suba are some of the few people in Kenya to trace their history several generations backwards, their culture has been greatly eroded.

According to many Suba elders, the colonial Government and missionaries spearheaded the death of their language and culture.

“When we took our children to school, the colonial Government and missionaries only posted  Dholuo  speaking teachers and clergy,” Kasuku adds.

As a result all Suba children were first taught Dholuo that became the medium of communication and instruction in school, at the expense of their mother tongue.

As a result, UNESCO as one of the 13 languages threatened with extinction has classified the Suba language.

Very few people can speak our mother tongue. We have been socialised into speaking in Dholuo. Those who can communicate in mother tongue are fast diminishing,” adds Silvester Kasuku. Silvester is one of the grandsons of the legendary Kasuku Matunga, a 13 generation descendant of Kiboye. Ironically, Silvester mastered the English language in unclear circumstances and became a legend in 1908 when he was appointed as a court interpreter in Kisii.

Silvester entered the judicial service at a time when the Kisii people and the colonial Government were waging an armed resistance against the British.

At the beginning of 1908 when Silvester started as an interpreter, a spear wielding warrior attacked the then Kisii District Commissioner, GAS Northcote.

This attack kept the colonial system justice busy for scores of villagers were killed, hundreds arrested and their livestock confiscated and houses torched. 

Silvester, his descendants explain, developed a soft spot for Kisii  and is believed to have played a pivotal role  later when the Government started settling locals.

Twenty two years later, Silvester was appointed chief in 1930, further boosting his image in Gwassi and beyond.

Joseph Elly Sigalai, together with his parents and hundreds of other families were part of the Talai  families who were relocated from  Kericho to Gwassi by the colonial Government in the 1930s.

He has fond memories of Silvester. “He made our lives comfortable. Although the Government was very strict, he made sure the Talai families had access to water and grazing land,” Sigilai recalls.

Some of the Talai elders who wee exiled in Gwassi recall that had it not been for Kasuku and the Suba people’s hospitality, life in captivity would have been unbearable.

Kasuku’s fame spread like bushfire to as far as Masaka, Uganda, where the news ultimately reached then reigning king, Kabaka Mutesa.

According to the younger Kasuku, when the Kabaka visited the colonial authorities in Nairobi between 1938 and 1942, he requested to be allowed to meet  Kasuku.

After the meeting, the Kabaka was impressed  by Kasuku’s administration capabilities and requested him to join him at the palace to  help administer the kingdom.

“My grandfather was flattered by the request but did not like the idea of moving his expansive family to Uganda, a place he had never been. He declined the offer,” Silverster adds.

Nevertheless, Kasuku was invited to Kabaka’s palace where he was feted as he was taken round the kingdom.

Pampered and showered

He had traveled to Uganda with a retinue of clansmen who were pampered and showered with gifts.

Silvester came back from Uganda with Kabaka’s picture and two spears as well as a royal drum as a lasting testimony to the king’s friendship.

This visit was followed by delegations from Uganda dispatched from Kabaka’s palace. These are the people who brought Kasuku his flowing robes, which made him resemble a king’s regalia.

Silvester rose through the ranks to become a senior chief in 1945 and later became the president, African Appeal court in 1948 and ultimately retired in 1951.

Although the Kasuku’s visits to Uganda abruptly ended in 1957 when he passed away, his family had benefitted from them.

One of the most prominent textile dealers in Kisumu was at one time Kasuku Odunga and is still a household name in the entire Nyanza and Rift Valley regions.

Odunga took after his father and successfully established his own business empire based on Kasuku Garments.

Kasuku Garments handled the biggest Government tenders in its jurisdiction, especially uniforms for such departments such as prison.

In Kisii, where Silvester had  started his career in 1908, his name still lives in the people’s hearts for he is remembered for arbitrating cases.

Although Silvester was far away from Buganda Kingdom, in Kenya he somehow assisted the British colonialists in expanding their own empire.

A number of elders testify that he was key in carving out the boundaries delineating  South Nyanza and Central Nyanza. “He also created the physical boundaries between the Kisii and Luo communities as well as Kisii and the Kalenjin people.

At Magunga, the Suba District headquarters, Silvester’s  name is presently etched on a piece of wood prominently displayed inside the chief’s office.  His name and those of all the other chiefs who have ever served Suba are listed on the special board.

akareithi@standardmedia.co.ke