Uthamaki: How Kibaki deflated the ego of Kiambu

• Former President Mwai Kibaki’s win in 2002 deflated the ego of Kiambu
• The Kiambu Mafia’ had warned that uthamaki (leadership) would never cross Chania River
• Chania River serves as boundary between Kiambu and Murang’a counties

During President Jomo Kenyatta’s regime, a clique of leaders nicknamed ‘The Kiambu Mafia’ warned that uthamaki (leadership) would never cross Chania River to Murang’a and Nyeri districts.

Chania River serves as boundary between Kiambu and Murang’a counties. Jomo Kenyatta was from Gatundu which is in Kiambu. But uthamaki did cross Chania River when Mwai Kibaki — who is from Nyeri County — trounced Jomo’s son, Uhuru Kenyatta, in the 2002 presidential polls.

The ego of the Kiambu Mafia was deflated. Uthamaki was in the hands of Kibaki’s Mt Kenya Mafia. Later, the term crossing Chania River was expanded to mean that the presidency should not leave Central Kenya.

But what should really humble the Kiambu Mafia even more is not just political, but sex escapades on either side of Chania River, long before Kenyatta I became president. 

At the beginning of the 1900s, strong Murang’a men tracing their scattered clan lineage flocked Kiambu, where they were well-fed, but by the end of their expedition, slept with Kiambu women.

They would then taunt Kiambu men as foolish and dared them to cross Chania River to sip ‘Murang’a honey’.

The expeditions, known as njama (grouping), trekked from Murang’a to Kiambu to take home their lost clansmen to build robust kinship that would defend their land back home.

 The njama had exclusive freedom to walk into any homestead and be served food and accommodation.

“If you had more than one wife, you would accommodate one or two and such, they had the right to sleep with your other wives and leave when they wished.

They got special treatment,” says Njoroge wa Kimani, the 89-year-old Kikuyu elder and owner of Wakanini Cultural Centre in Murengeti in Kiambu.

After ‘chewing’ their hosts’ wives, they let slip their secrets with taunting songs, boasting of their escapades, laughing and ridiculing Kiambu men as soon as they reached Chania River, where they broke out into song: “Kabete muri akigu, mwatuhe ndegwa na horio ni nyondo (Kabete, you are fools, you slaughtered a bull for us and served it with women’s breasts,” they sang. Kabete is how Kiambu was known back in the day.

Things went south in the late 1930s when Moses Mundeki, 83, from Githunguri, Kiambu, was a young boy.

“I saw the last batch of njama. This time, they were promised a feast by a Kung’u wa Mukore who urged them to get firewood as he fetched a goat to slaughter, but he disappeared.

They never forgave him,” says Mundeki, adding that today, children born out of the sex flings are great grandparents.

Kiambu men feared crossing Chania River to seek revenge for fear of being bewitched. It was not until the njama ceased to be welcome in Kiambu that the sex expeditions stopped.    

Francis Kimani, 91, an elder from Murang’a, admits that the revelations about the sex escapades somewhat soured relations between Kiambu and Murang’a people, which later led to the communal pact that uthamaki should not cross Chania River.

He says that this spiraled down to generations later, upsetting marriages across the two sides. It is from this incident that Kiambu people christened Murang’a people as Metumi (silent or secretive people).

Later, it was conjured up thus: Metumi ndigi maguru (those who tie their trouser bottoms).

Chege wa Ndong’o, an elder from Gaturi in Murang’a says the Murang’a men in those excursions were brawny and irresistible to women.

 “They were seductive and could not resist an affair after Kiambu women treated them well. What happened is in the past and now we are mending the rifts,” he said.