Former TA boss offers to mediate row between church and Kikuyu traditions

Former Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi

Former Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi has offered to mediate a row between a church and Kikuyu Council of Elders.

Mr Wamwangi, who is also a Kikuyu Council of Elders senior adviser, said the row that has seen the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) ban its members from participating in rites that make them full Kikuyu elders could be resolved without hurting either party.

The PCEA recently advised its members to stop subscribing to a tradition rite of passage that involves offering a goat for slaughter before being recognised as an elder.

The church said, after its annual convention, that it found the practice of 'Mburi ciaKiama' unchristian.

But Wamwangi said there was no need for the misunderstanding between the church and the traditionalists because the rite was intended to make a strong morally upright community and nation.

“In the Kikuyu Council of Elders, we emphasise that a good person raises a good family and a good family is the foundation of a strong community and nation,” said Wamwangi.

He said the need to revive the traditional Kikuyu rites of passage comes at a time when the boy-child is besieged in the Mt Kenya region with many unable to take up the traditional leadership mantle in their families.

“One of the key campaign planks of the Kikuyu Council of Elders is ingraining fatherly responsibility in men and we have decided that this can be done through the traditional rites of passage,” said Wamwangi.

He said after circumcision, married Kikuyu men undergo up to three rites of passage to become full elders, each involving slaughtering and feasting on a goat they have offered.

“Initiation into responsible adulthood is a sacred Kikuyu rite and offering Mburi ciaKiama has nothing unchristian about it,” said Wamwangi.