A look at the Koinanges’ formidable lineage

Senior Chief Koinange wa Mbiyu had six wives and 34 children who are the backbone of a formidable lineage that is the Koinanges.

Senior Chief Koinange wa Mbiyu of Kiambu was the patriarch of the Koinanges. Though illiterate, the articulate and fervent Chief Koinange spearheaded early education through independent schools with the establishment of Githunguri Teachers College, where future President Jomo Kenyatta was vice-principal when he returned to Kenya from England in 1946. Senior Chief Koinange’s dalliance with the colonial government saw him appointed headman in 1921 and Senior Chief 17 years later, before serving as an adviser on African affairs to the DC. He retired at the onset of the Mau Mau insurgency in 1949, but for advocating for Africans to grow coffee and fighting against land encroachment in Central Kenya, he was detained in 1952. He died at the age of 95.

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