Pre-independent pioneers of roasting savoury mutton

By Joseph Karimi

Kenya: Kenyans are truly a meat loving people. Even before independence, meat was at the top of Kenyan food. Way back in 1950, my father used to send me to buy meat from the Igatiro, the local butchery at Ruring’u, on the periphery of Nyeri town.

Those days, weight and measures system was based on the British Imperial measures of pound and ounce as the metric system was not within our world. The butcher, if my memory serves me right, pocketed a shilling and fifty cents for the pound of meat, which he  wrapped in magoto, two lengths of the dry banana stem coverings that were tightened up to create a handle with your meat secure in their grip.

At Ruring’u, Mr Makubu the butcher served the entire town.When a farmer sold his cow for slaughter, there was the owner’s ‘right’, a chunk of meat cut out together with the tail, known as Kihingo, a fatty piece to thank the owner for breeding the animal well. Negligent breeders had it rough with fatless Kihingo.

The generations of the affluent was imaged with their large flocks of sheep and goats. My grandfather owned nearly 1,500 sheep and goats and about 300 head of cattle. Killing two of the sheep and goats for meat daily would not decimate the flock. But for those who had no flocks of their own, the butchery came as their saviour.

As Kenya went through liberation by Mau Mau fighters, the colonial government imposed a State of Emergency, which was supposed to last for three months but continued from October 20, 1952 to January 1960. Most of the material wealth, livestock, businesses, and business premises were destroyed during the years of the struggle to punish the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities for their ardent support of Mau Mau.

Come independence and the country became vibrant with lots of economic activities. Those allocated former White Highlands revived the livestock rearing and the population of animals for slaughter increased with roast meat becoming popular. There was a remarkable rise of butcheries opened adjacent to flourishng bars and restaurants as well as entertainment places.

Roast meat place

As business continued to flourish, Ruring’u suburban town of Nyeri, the long time Provincial Headquarters of Central Province, now Nyeri County Headquarters took the lion’s share with a lot of social activities favouring the town.

Then emerged Mr Justus Gikandi Magana, who started a butchery business and out his initiative, pioneered a technique of roasting savoury mutton that has continued to distinguish Ruring’u as the roast meat place.

Unlike Mr Makubu who sold meat and offered miteni (African sausages), Mr Gikandi launched a skill of roasting whole legs and other cuts of sheep and goats for long hours over a grill.

Gikandi placed his meat on the grill at 9am to be ready by lunch time. He dipped the meat in salty solutions and regularly applied the same as the charcoal fire beneath the grill cooked the stuff above gradually.

Customers from all over the town would flock his joint for the savoury meat. However, Gikandi had a long list of orders sent in from as early as 8am.

Gikandi hailed from the famous Magana, who was a cousin of Ihura, the father of warrior hero Wang’ombe wa Ihura. I visited him on the Tuesday of October 21, 1969, to write a story about him.

Just then, he had been declared a winner of Sh15,000 Kenya Charity Sweepstake raffle, which he decided to invest in a business building he named Jogoo Charity Butchery. As soon as the building was completed, he set up his special meat grilling business.

As time went and his delicacies attracted the whole of Nyeri town, lunch time turned the Gikandi Grill inside the Jogoo Charity Butchery into a beehive of activity. He never let down his patrons. At one point, a customer would point to a goat leg and Gikandi would pronounce: “That leg is reserved for the DC, that other one for the OCPD, this one for the Education Officer and that one for the Hospital Superintendent).”

Top dignitaries

There was a special room for these top dignitaries and they came in droves according to the orders placed.  By 2pm, another round of meat filled the grill to cater for the evening clients. Four goats would be consumed at lunch time and a similar number in the evening.

Clients patronising other drinking holes in the town were also served with the savoury meat from Gikandi’s Grill. Bars and restaurants like Guthii ni kwona (To-go-is-to-see) and others had to develop similar skills to retain customers.

Thus Gikandi’s skills were propagated to many towns even outside Nyeri. When he passed on, his family of many lads had caught up with their father’s special skills and each looked for space elsewhere and set the ball rolling. You will find a Gikandi at Tumu’s, at Giakanja and others in different locations in Ruring’u.         

Gikandi told me in the 1969 interview that he would never forgot April 7, 1969, the day when he looked at the results of the March draw to find his ticket No 300425 for a horse named Landslide had won him the Sh15,000. He used to buy 25 Sweepstake tickets every month and eventually, his efforts had paid off.

The disciplinarian

The old man was a non-nonsense person who had gone through thick and thin in life, but his boldness earned him privileges. In his hey days, Gikandi rubbed shoulders with the white settlers occupying the extensive White Highlands.

During the 1930s and 40s, European settlers (the gods of the White Highlands) hired Gikandi as a disciplinarian over their African labour force. Gikandi was on call to settle work boycotts and go-slows by African labour. He definitely was not a trade unionist, but applied coercive dispute management with a whip in hand.

News of his advancement was received with trepidation. He rode on a horse through bushes and forests inhabited by lions and other marauding animals with a whip in hand to answer duty calls.  When word reached the workers that the dreadful Gikandi was riding to their Bwana’s farm or ranch, they would hastily return to work long before the disciplinarian arrived.

In such instances, Gikandi just picked his retainer. He was the “Saul” of the White Highlands of the Rift Valley.