How ex-chief’s tribulations set him on path to bright legacy

23.10.73 President Kenyatta's son, Muhoho Kenyatta, seen unveiling a commemorative plague at the late Ex-Senior Chief Muhoho, after Mrs Ngina Kenyatta (third from left) had addressed students at Muhoho High School Speech

When a hyena plans to devour one of its cubs, it accuses the young one of behaving and smelling like a goat. No amount of protestation, will save the cub, once the die has been cast for the accuser is the judge, the jury and the executioner.

This gem of African wisdom is aptly captured by an administrator who scripted an epitaph for the tombstone of one of his juniors, knowing well that there would be no grave to erect the cross.

The genesis of the saga is explained by a report authored by Kiambu administrator, J W Isaac who sealed the fate of chief Gathecha wa Ngekenya on November 29, 1913.

In his Political Report Book, Isaac fabricated the case which was the last nail in the chief’s career coffin when he said he had landed himself in serious trouble.

“Gathecha wa Ngekenya landed himself into serious problems after his Kiama consisting 52 men were tried by the High Court in Kiambu for judicial murder and each man was sentenced to pay a fine of Rs (Indian Rupees) 50.” They were blamed for the death of two men lynched by public for on suspicion of practising witchcraft.

Sentence for killing

At the time, the criminal penal code in practice in Kiambu and other parts of central Kenya provided for retribution for a crime of murder, which the Protectorate Government called ‘blood money’.

Issac gave the code some validity in a lengthy report on October 12, 1912 titled, ‘Notes on Kikuyu Law,’ in which he explained that “the only true authorities and codes under Kikuyu Laws are the council of elders, variously refereed to as Kiama.”

The elders’ powers extended to passing death sentence with the consent of the relatives of the offender where the trial parties appeared before elders and made their statements. A guilty verdict attracted payment of 100 goats if the victim was a man, from which the family got half while the elders and the clan got the rest.

The sentence for killing a woman or a girl was 30 goats which was distributed to the affected family, elders and the clan while a boy was compensated just like a man. The prescribed penalty for a witchdoctor was burning the convict alive as there was no provision for such a criminal to compensate the victim.

At this time, Gathecha was among 11 other chiefs ruling Kiambu on behalf of the colonial masters. He was on a salary of 380 Rupees, while the highest paid was Muturi, whose salary was 20 Rupees more and his Kingdom extended from the forest at Komothai, along Thiririka river all the way to Twithi river and up to Kandara.

His fate was sealed the following year and was again recorded in the Political Record Book covering the months of January to March;

“Gathecha Wa Ngekenya, chief of Ngenda has been deposed by His excellency the governor for five years to Nyanza Province. He was deeply implicated in a judicial murder which took place in his division,” and further explained that his successor, Gitango Wambura, had been elected on March 2, 1914. What was not said was that Gitango was Gathecha’s cousin.

There was also no mention of the action which had been taken against the 52 members of Gathecha’s council of elders who had all been found guilty.

Soon after, the colonial government arrested Gathecha, a son, Muhoho and a relative, Kinuthia Wa Muthunga. They also apprehended Nyawira, one of his 22 wives and sent the four to Kericho where they were expected to stay for the next five years but a nasty surprise awaited them.

“My father (Muhoho) told me he saw chief Gathecha being fetched from the compound he had been confined to and led away to an unknown place. My father later learnt that Gathecha had been tied to a horse and dragged along a road until he died,” recounts one of the administrators’ grandson, Paul Gathecha Muhoho.

Split into two

The family says 105 years later; nobody knows where the body was taken.

Soon after, Muhoho was allowed to return to Ngenda location which to his shock had been split into two. Here he was directed to take over half of his father’s “kingdom ‘as he was appointed a chief of Kiganjo.

The grandson explained that the colonial government was hellbent on killing the chief because he had defied their orders to allow settlers occupy land beyond Gathege and Kimunyu areas.

“They wanted to teach him a lesson. I have always wondered why they killed him in such a brutal manner and I think they were trying to force him to do something but he declined. They made my father chief so that they could placate him not to reveal this atrocity. They also wanted to keep a tight leash on him. That’s why they offered him the office,” the grandson says.

Muhoho, who was born in 1872 got into office at a time the colonial government was building stone houses for chiefs. The official mode of transport for grassroots administrators was a horse.

“I remember my father riding on a white horse as he traveled to Kiambu to attend to official duties. When at home, the horse would be tethered within the vast compound where the twelve houses for his wives were arranged in a row in order of seniority, a distance from his thingira from where he dispensed justice,” Gathecha recalls.

Muhoho undertook his duties without clashing with his employer for 38 years. However, he too was to taste the white man’s wrath when the State of Emergency was declared in 1952.

In the eyes of the government, he had committed an unforgivable crime for allowing his daughter, Ngina to marry Jomo Kenyatta. Following the script crafted for his father Gathecha, the colonial government sacked him and replaced him with a close relative, Kinyua Gathecha who was his brother. 

“Our family was scattered. My father was incarcerated, my sister Ngina was also locked up at Kamiti. Our property was confiscated and at one point when I was a small boy, I had to fight off a police officer who wanted to snatch a banana I intended to sell so that my mother Nyokabi could get some money for food,” Muhoho adds.

Although Gathecha wa Ngekenya has been gone for more than a century his legacy lives on for his son, Muhoho is remembered for his love for education and his name is immortalised by Muhoho High school, after he gave the land on which the institution stands. He also donated land where Gatitu Mission was established and later a girls’ high school and a primary school.

His spirit, a great grand daughter, Ann Nyokabi Gathecha, the former Kiambu Woman Rep, lives on because his descendants have emulated his selfless leadership.

“If Gathecha Wa Ngekenya was alive today, he would have the last laugh for one of his great grandsons is the biggest chief in Kenya. He is now the equivalent of the chief of the governor, who deposed and deported him for standing up for the rights of his people but was crucified on trumped up charges,” Nyokabi says.  

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