Chuka’s rebirth remains a mirage

By Amos Kareithi

Like a bird perched strategically atop a mighty tree, ready for takeoff, Chuka has been biding its time, waiting and praying for the most opportune moment to spread its wings. But almost all hope is gone.

The wait has been long, given that the town owes its existence to restless ancestors, who migrated over 700 years ago from Shungwaya, near Somalia. They were fleeing from troublesome neighbours, such as the Wagalla.

The search for an ideal home, Robert Macpherson says in his book, The Presbyterian Church in Kenya, saw the migrants settle at the foothills of Mt Kenya. Other groups of Bantus, such as the Kikuyu and Mbeere, also followed the same migratory route.

Prof Erastus Njoka, the principal of Chuka University, explains that according to local mythology, the patriarch of the Chuka community, Ciambugi, at first settled at Kabandi. However, his ever squabbling wives, Ciabandi and Ciangoi, forced him to split his family.

Foundations

“Ciabandi was instructed to move with her children to the east. Her descendants later became known as the Tharaka. Ciangoi remained at Kabandi and is the mother of the Chuka people,” Njoka says.

The foundations of Chuka Town as an administrative unit are relatively new, and can be traced to the restless colonial administrator, Edward Butler Horne, who was nicknamed ‘Kangangi’.

According to Peter Kagwanja and Humphrey Ringera in Kiraitu Murungi: An Odyssey in Kenyan Politics, Kangangi first established an administrative unit in Embu, in 1913, then crossed over to Chuka, Meru and beyond. Chuka Town was established more or less halfway between Embu and Meru.

Chuka’s fate was sealed when Kenya became a colony in 1920 and Embu and Meru were elevated to district headquarters, while Chuka was just made a divisional headquarter.

By extension, Chuka was made part of the larger Embu District and its people separated from their cousins, the Tharaka, Tigania and Imenti, who were attached to Meru District, with its first headquarters at Mutindwa.

Chuka’s relatively lower status, compounded by the locals’ hostility to Clife Irvine’s missionary efforts, drove ‘westernisation’ to the more accommodating areas like Chogoria, where hospitals, churches and learning institutions were established.

In 1932, things were complicated further when a section of leaders demanded that Chuka be made part of Meru District. This movement, spearheaded by Senior Chief Angaine, the father to former influential Cabinet minister Jackson Angaine, also succeeded in making River Thuci the natural boundary separating Meru and Embu districts.

“To achieve this unification, Angaine invoked Njuri Ncheke, an organisation, which had been started by Kaura Wakabecu in 1700. Angaine conspired with other colonial chiefs to administer an oath to all Chuka and Muthambi sub-tribes, making them members of one big family of the Meru people,” Njoka expounds.

Dying wish

Daniel Nyaga, in his book, Customs and the Traditions of Meru, says that Wakabecu founded the council of elders and left a dying wish that the organisation should never die.

Nyaga further explains that a moral code, to be followed by all members of the community, was provided, and penalties were spelt out for those who breached the code.

This perspective is supported by the writings of Jeffrey A Fadiman, in Where We Began there were Witchmen: An Oral History from Mt Kenya.

The author elaborates the role played by chiefs and elders in assisting the colonial government to penetrate the Njuri Ncheke in the 1920s and 1930s.

He writes in part, “Selecting two of the most respected senior chiefs, as well as several widely known elders, Lambert (a district commissioner) transported them with elaborate ceremony to a specially convened meeting of the Njuri ya Kiama in Imenti.

“There the delegates were courteously invited to ‘buy njuri’, making token payments of livestock for their initiation”.

So powerful was Angaine that at one time, his powers were felt beyond the conventional boundaries between the Thuci and Ntonyiri rivers, extending all the way to Naromoru.

Chuka only got some autonomy 70 years later, when it was elevated to a district headquarter in 1993 after Tharaka Nithi District was created.

Despite that milestone, Chuka’s hope for rebirth after all these years of stagnation has been dashed.

The only other development that would have transformed it into a modern town was the introduction of a devolved system of government. This, too, has turned to be a mirage.

“The town has grown against many odds. Many people have invested heavily in real estate. There was a time we had municipal council and county council headquarters in this town, but all that is gone,” laments Nelson M’Cirtiga, a retired teacher.

M’Ciriga, like thousands of residents, are dismayed by the decision of the newly installed county government to move the county headquarters from Chuka to Kathwana, 30 kilometres away.

Chuka is also at the risk of being enveloped by Ndagani, which is situated about five kilometres away, along the Chuka-Meru highway.

Riding on the wings of a 62-year-old prophecy, the humble village has started blossoming and appears to be destined for greater things.

Ndagani’s journey began in 1951, when a deeply religious midwife, Jerusha Kanyua, predicted that a mountain would spring in the village. From this mountain, according to the prophecy, birds from all parts of the world would perch and leave contented.

Prophecy

This prophecy started being fulfilled in 1956, when an art centre was established in the village. It was supposed to teach Africans how to build modern houses and equip young people with skills in masonry and carpentry.

In 1969, the art centre was transformed into a village polytechnic. It served Ndagani in that capacity for the next 36 years, until Egerton University chose to establish Eastern Campus College. When it opened its doors on August 1, 2005, it only had 24 students.

The rest is history, for what was once a campus college has since become a fully fledged charted public university.

“Jerusha was right when she predicted that a mountain would crop out of Ndagani and attract birds from all over the world. Today, we have a population of 10,000 students and 500 members of staff,” Njoka says.

The once sleepy village is now a large town. Demand for houses for students and workers is insatiable, and an acre of land near the university is going for Sh2.5 million.

Ironically, Chuka town’s downgrading from a district headquarter into a mere business centre has rendered countless buildings moribund.

But even as this is happening, Chuka University is providing what scholars are calling ‘its own city’, where some of the tallest buildings in the area are situated.

The way things stand, it will take another prophecy for Chuka Town to enjoy a rebirth, despite the unification of the descendants of Ciambugi in one administrative unit, Tharaka Nithi County.

The writer can be reached through amoskareithi@yahoo.co.uk