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A section of Kikuyu elders have termed as ‘unjustified’ the decision by other elders to curse business mogul SK Macharia for politically ‘betraying the community’.
Macharia, who owns Royal Media Services, claimed that Raila Odinga defeated retired president Mwai Kibaki during the 2007 presidential polls while making a presentation on the election laws debate in the National Assembly on January 3.
This pronouncement did not go down well with a section of Kikuyu leaders, prompting members of Kiama Kia Ma (council of elders) to conduct a curse ritual at Macharia’s Gatanga home in Murang’a County on January 31 after he refused to apologise.
The covert ceremony entailed the sacrificing of a goat that was pierced with a horn while incantations were made. The elders later claimed they cursed the business and generations of Macharia who at one time travelled for three months by bus, boat and plane before landing penniless in America to acquire an education.
Njoroge wa Kimani, the chair of Kikuyu Elders Welfare Association says Kiama Kia Ma made a mountain out of a molehill from Macharia’s proclamation.
Kimani says it was wrong for the elders to curse SK’s generation which did not commit the offence Macharia is purported to have committed.
“I have led many rituals and a curse rite is not conducted as one wishes. Besides the sacrifice and traditional practice, it also involves prayers to the God. Such a ceremony is prompted by very grave offences, not like Macharia’s,” Kimani reveals.
Kikuyu Council of Elders chairman Wachira Kiago told The Nairobian they too were not party to the ritual and none of their members supported it.
Kimani feels the elders should have explored other avenues if they felt he offended the community.
“We can’t praise what Macharia did. He was supposed to be pushed to table evidence or else withdraw the statement and apologise. His political preference should be respected,” says Kimani.
He added that, “Elders should be careful while handling some of these rituals. If witchdoctors don’t bewitch children because of their fathers’ mistakes, why then curse a generation? This should not happen again.”
