Grief-stricken mourners anxiously waited for the body of their loved one to arrive in the mud-walled and grass-thatched colonial-era chapel. This was their first Christian funeral service. The year was 1967.
This was a unique ceremony. The dead woman was among the first indigenous people to embrace Christianity at the onset of colonial rule in Kenya.
The burial rites of the deceased, the mother of Mbugua Kibathi, were the first to be held in the ramshackle chapel, sitting on the hilltop about 500 metres from Ruiru Town on the Ruiru-Kiambu Road, in 1967.
It was the first time mourners here were witnessing Christian rites being performed on the dead to prepare the body for burial and the soul for heaven.
Their hearts sagged with the pain of the deep loss. Yet, they were curious to see what a Christian burial was like.
Family and friends received the coffin bearing the remains when the burial convoy arrived in the compound of the small chapel, which resembled traditional African huts.
The Rev Jotham Gatungo Wandu, the first auxiliary Presbyterian minister sent to lead the pioneer flock, offered opening prayers thanking God for the journey mercies and the service ahead. He then asked the pallbearers to carry the coffin into the chapel.
Bizarrely, the coffin couldn't fit on the tiny door of the chapel. The mourners were gripped by shock, disbelief and confusion. Some wiped away tears, while others simply hugged one another through shared grief.
"A quick intervention by one of the mourners saved the situation," says businessman Stephenson King'ara Ng'ang'a, shedding light on a bizarre incident that ignited the insightful and inspiring journey of the current PCEA Ruiru Town Church.
"The volunteer unleashed a powerful kick that brought down the door. It created a wider space for the coffin to be carried into the chapel." It calmed the nerves of mourners. Kibathi's mother was among the first indigenous people who had settled in Ruiru, in Kiambu County. She was also part of the first black people who joined the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) soon after it was formed in 1943.
Kambui-based America's Gospel Missionary Society (GMS) missionaries were adopted by the pioneer Scottish missionaries, constituting themselves as the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM), based at Thogoto near Kikuyu Town, to form the PCEA.
Birth of PCEA Ruiru Town Church
Seeking to have a permanent PCEA church, the Kiambu Presbytery Youth, in 1975, approached the Kiambu District Commissioner to be allocated land in Ruiru Town.
Their prayers reached heaven when the DC allocated them six acres of land along the Ruiru-Kiambu Road. The faithful, congregating as the PCEA Ruiru Nendeni Area, put up the chapel only to later realise it was built in the wrong place.
Mzee King'ara says: "Despite the initial setback, mourners still celebrated the life of Kibathi's mother at a moving funeral service."
"Kibathi was a member of the new Presbyterian church. He had influential friends in the church. That's how he lobbied for his mother to be accorded a church funeral service," says the 91-year-old tycoon and the father of Ruiru MP, Ng'ang'a King'ara. Although advanced in years, he's sharp in memory and speech.
The King'ara Senior, Kibathi, Zachariah Kimemia Gakunju - who later became an MP for Gatundu and assistant minister for Wildlife and Tourism - were part of the team spearheading the growth of the PCEA in Ruiru as it was spreading its wings from Kambui.
Others on the team were Mwangi Chauri, Mwangi Nyarari, Njogu Muchina, Titus Mairang'a and Nyambura Kabogo. Nyambura is a relative of William Kabogo Gitau, the Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communications and The Digital Economy.
"After the burial service, Rev Wandu called us aside outside the chapel and challenged us to build a modern church," explains the King'ara Senior, an affable, sharp-witted and informed octogenarian who lovingly carries within himself the long history of the PCEA Ruiru Town Church, the place that moulded and shaped his worldview.
It was when the group was verifying the survey map that they got a rude shock; discovering the chapel was built on the wrong parcel of land!
The team decided to seek the help of Arthur Kinyanjui Magugu, then MP for Githunguri and Finance Minister in the government of President Daniel arap Moi. He visited the land one morning. Ruiru Town was then in Githunguri constituency.
Magugu introduced them to James Raymond Njenga, the Commissioner of Lands at the Ministry of Lands. Njenga allocated the church four acres a few yards away from the original site.
The founders surrendered the land where the chapel was built and began the construction of an iconic shelter, establishing the PCEA Ruiru Town Church after an arduous journey, in 1980.
"I drew the plan for the church building on a paper which we gave to an architect to design," King'ara says. He chuckles as he fishes out an old file from a steel cabinet in his Ruiru Town office. "This is it!" His finger is pointing to a church structure drawn with a ballpoint pen. In the file are receipts of construction material used to build the church and typewriters-written letters.
"As a young boy, I used to be part of school children that used to sing to Magugu and other guests of honour during harambees for the construction of the church in the early 1980s," reminisces Dr David Njeng'ere, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kenya National Examinations Council.
Looking around, Mzee King'ara intimates that things in the PCEA church were not always as they are now, that there was a time when wild animals roamed the then-bushy compound, and that it has been a long and tough journey for many who have made the magnificent church what it is today.
When King'ara drove to Narok to buy cedar posts to fence off the four-acre plot, he was arrested by police for lack of a timber transportation licence.
It took the intervention of politician William ole Ntimama, then Chairman of Narok County Council, to secure his freedom and have the police release the posts.
There was joy and jubilation when the PCEA Ruiru Town Church was dedicated by the Rev John Boro Njuguna, the Moderator of the Kambui Presbytery, on June 13, 1993. Newly-posted Parish Minister, the Rev Patrick Muthungu, says they have scheduled the church's grand 50th anniversary celebrations on March 30.
The iconic church, sitting on a hillside overlooking the sleepy Ruiru Town, looks like it was built yesterday. It's a testament to a dream of faith and its accomplishment.
The PCEA Ruiru Town Church, he says, is delighted to give birth to the fast-growing Ruiru Presbytery, unveiled on March 6, 2016, with five parishes and one Nendeni area in Zombe, Kitui County.
The Rev Muthungu says the PCEA Ruiru Presbytery now has 12 parishes and 48 congregations.
