How UhuRuto revived 'Iregi spirit' in Mount Kenya

President William Ruto and former President Uhuru Kenyatta after a meeting at State House, Nairobi. [File, Standard]

In the latter part of the 19th Century, imperial Britain grabbed the East African territory with a big mountain on the Equator, called Kirinyaga or Mount Kenya. Kirinyaga is the centre of spiritual inspiration to many people who live around it. At times, these people can be defiant, and currently appear to be in a defiance mode.

Defiance was often a result of things going wrong. It happened with the Iregi generation which rejected a ‘king’ and created consultative governance through councils. The mountain at times had prophets like Chege wa Kibiru who warned them of the looming danger of butterfly-looking people with their smoking sticks. The butterfly people created colonial Kenya which developed into a land of two conflicting societies, ‘White Man’s country’ and Mau Mau country.