Untold History; The Shocking History of Machakos

Learn more on what is the history of Machako’s town, who was Masaku, was Masaku a collaborator and Masaku the Kamba prophet

Table of Contents

• What Is The History Of Machakos Town?
• Who Was Masaku?
• Was Masaku A Collaborator
• Myth about Masaku
• Masaku the Kamba Prophet
• When Did Masaku Died
• Iveti (women) Hills

A Kamba term is not Machakos. It originates with "Masaku wa Musya." Europeans have trouble pronouncing the name Machakos region. Masuku, a Kamba Mwathani (seer), was well-known for his capacity to forecast rain.

What Is The History Of Machakos Town?

Fort Machakos, which is part of the thriving county of Machakos, is only 30 minutes' drive from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and is situated 43 miles south of Nairobi. In 1887, the region was formed as the initial administrative hub for the new British East Africa colony. The name Machakos was taken from an Akamba seer known as Masaku who greeted the British in Kambaland.

Outside of Nairobi, Machakos County is a beautiful place to visit because of its lush, agricultural landscape. On the way from the capital to Machakos County, travelers are greeted by a vast savannah grassland with a network of ranches filled with wildlife.

Machakos town is encircled by sloping hills that provide an incredibly picturesque vista. The Masinga Dam, Kenya's largest man-made water reservoir, and the Yatta Plateau, the world's longest larva flow, are located at the extreme end.

The Kamba were maybe the first group from Kenya's interior to be "exposed" to globalization.

So, it is not unexpected that the Kamba furnished early European visitors with a huge number of porters. In addition, community members were more familiar with the interior's geography than outsiders

Two characteristics about the Kamba were known to early visitors to Kenya: first, they were long-distance travelers (and traders); and second, their culture was rooted on witchcraft and sorcery.

Merchants from the interior, primarily from the Kamba tribe, would meet with Arabs and Europeans to conduct business. Cloth, mirrors, ivory, spices, jewelry, and cowrie shells were among the commodities traded.

According to certain historians, Kambas supported Arabs in the trade in slaves from East Africa by acting as interior guides.

Who Was Masaku?

Masaku, a fugitive who traveled through Kilingu and Kalama carrying their cows, three women, and two men, was like a thief in the night. He arrived at the mountain covered in dew. His wife, two sisters, and he left their home in Sultan Hamud in full darkness and secrecy.

Masaku's family was eager to conceal their only daughters after Masaku's brother killed a woman. Custom stipulates that in order to make amends, a woman from the guilty clan must be slain. Masaku escaped due of this. The tale of Kiima Kimwe, which served as Masaku and his sisters' ideal hiding place.

After his arrival in 1816, Masaku gave the hill, which was then unoccupied and covered with dazzling morning dew, the name Kiima Kimwe (Hill of Dew). Masaku flourished, taking on 11 more wives, and his reputation as a prophet and healer grew. These abilities allowed him to cure diseases in both people and animals, foresee the future, and occasionally bring rain when it was needed.

When missionaries came to the region in the late 1890s, Masaku made his first interaction with a white person.

Masaku planted his enormous baobao trees at an Ithembo (shrine) where religious rituals were performed while residing atop Kiima Kimwe.

Masaku was renowned for his propensity for predicting rain. He resided close to Fort Machakos, the location of the first significant British administrative center in upcountry Kenya.

Masaku and Syokimau, a different mwathani who has also been referred to as a prophetess by certain historians, lived at roughly the same time.

In the late 19th century, Syokimau  the Orkoiyot of the Nandi and Cege Wa Kibiru,  , who lived around 250 miles apart, both had uncannily identical visions of Europeans arriving on our beaches.

Was Masaku A Collaborator

The legendary prophet's relationships with the colonizers are a contentious topic in Kamba country; some claim he colluded, leading to the appropriation of his name to denote Machakos. Masaku was a victim when the British confiscated his expansive holdings and built a fort while he was imprisoned on the adjacent hill of 'Iveti. He never cooperated with the British.

Before John Ainsworth later built a fort, representatives of the Imperial British East Africa Pioneer Company urged Masaku to permit one of his sons to move in and live with them there.

From the Atangwa clan, which was renowned for its military prowess and who rendered the Kamba region unruly, came the fabled seer Masaku. Masaku was expelled from their territory, where the colonial authority eventually built a fort and a government building before relocating him to Iveti Hill.

After leading the white men to the summit of Kiima Kimwe to meet the great old prophet, Masaku ordered his son Mua to live with a missionary known as Nzeuni in the area around 1890. Where Machakos City today sits was entirely under Masaku's cultivation in the past. For the guards who patrolled his fields of corn and sorghum and shot monkeys and birds, he built a watchtower.

Myth about Masaku

Masaku gained from Ndonye wa Kauti's suffering after he violently resisted the British and was put away.

Here, the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) set up its first hinterland station. IBEAC was little more than a tool for the foundation of colonial control in Kenya. At the Fort, some missionaries established their mission stations.

Early travelers slept down at Fort Machakos and took advantage of the opportunity to get to know the locals. Because of its perfect location and benign tropical environment, Machakos was prized by the British.

Masaku the Kamba Prophet

The Kamba thought sacred fig trees held the homes of Aimu spirits. Around these fig trees, known as ithembo, Kamba households erected shrines where sacrifices of animals to ancestors' spirits were made. It was thought that making sacrifices would placate the ancestors, who would then safeguard the families' welfare.

In Kikamba, there was also a dangerous form of witchcraft called as Uoi. This was in reference to spirits that were feared for their intransigence.

These ghosts have been referred to as the Aimu ya Kitombo in some accounts. They were feared for their capacity to conjure a death spell using dark magic.

People flocked to Masaku's residence for days as his popularity spread, bringing goats, beer seeds, millet, and a variety of other items to implore the Almighty Ngai to answer their prayers. Masaku prepared complex arrangements, smoked tobacco for three days, prepared food, wrapped skin around his shoulders, and then embarked on his enigmatic excursions as soon as the rain stopped. He turned his attention towards the half-acre plot that had been Masaku's Ithembo.

Notwithstanding the disputes, Akamba; It is generally acknowledged that Masaku existed and possessed special abilities. Some of his well-known descendants, such as Paul Ngei, who served as the community's unquestioned leader for the most of his life until his passing in 2004, inherited these abilities.

Ndonye clashed with the whites before being taken into custody. White people started to like Masaku during his incarceration and started referring to him as the paramount chief of Kamba. 

Masaku, a father of numerous children, had worried that none of his offspring would inherit his abilities. Then one day, one of his sons showed he was the one God had picked.

The elderly prophet gave his son Ing'ang'u the assignment one morning to travel a day's distance with his herd of cattle (from Masaku) to graze in remote pastures.

Ing'ang'u stretched a freshly butchered goatskin outside to dry before leaving, nailed it with incredibly gentle stakes, and instructed his father to take the skin off if it started to rain. Masaku rushes to the hideout to protect her from the rains around noon out of concern for his son's safety but discovers that he cannot get her down from the stakes.

Masaku fled from the scene in disgust in order to avoid becoming wet, but when the storm had passed, he returned and saw that the skin had not been wet at all. Also, he discovered that despite the use of very flexible stakes, those stakes had broken through the rock.

That's how Masaku understood there was no need to be concerned about an heir because Ingangu would inherit his powers. I came from Masaku's 12th wife, and one of my sons got those abilities. He has a crystal ball.

When Did Masaku Died

Masaku set off on an epic voyage as his death drew near, which is still being told to his ancestors more than a century later.

Masaku gave one of his wives a call and informed her that he would be gone for three days. She was to make enough food and snuff to endure for that long, per his instructions.

Masaku sat down on his stool and rode on a cloud to what his loved ones believed to be heaven while holding his spear in one hand and a bag of his gibberish in the other. Masaku reappeared after three days in the downpour, much to the pleasure of his supporters who were already complaining about the population's effects of the protracted drought.

Masaku, the protector of Akamba's traditions, broke the very covenant whose rigorous observance he was supposed to uphold, yet like a doctor unable to heal himself, he paid the ultimate price.

Masaku was forewarned by Syokimau and Mwatu wa Ngoma never to enter Kangundo or engage in combat with the nearby Maasai. Notwithstanding prior advice, he pursued the intruders to Kangundo after some of his cattle were stolen. The Maasai invaders eventually overcame him despite his advanced age, sparing them his life.

Masaku fled to the highlands of Iveti to lick his wounds after being humiliated and doubtful of his supernatural abilities. He then silently vanished. Unexpectedly, Masaku passed away far from his house in Kiima Kiimwe at Iveti (women) Hills, which some traditionalists claim are called after Syokimau.

His post-mortem circumstances are as contentious as the rest of his life, with some sources, as Kiki's History, describing a severe storm on the day of his passing in 1895, followed by an odd event.

Iveti (women) Hills

Another theory holds that the name Iveti Hills comes from the time of the fierce battles fought in Machakos during the Kamba-Maasai livestock invasions. It was traditional for the women and children to hide during these fights behind the hill of Iveti, while the warriors engaged in combat in the basin that is now Machakos.

Masaku's name, like Machakos', will never be forgotten because it is expected to be the location of Konza, Africa's first tech city, bringing back memories of Machakos' glory days as the region's top domestic administrative hub and far from Mombasa.

  Thank you for visiting our Kiki's History website, and we hope that you find our content both informative and enjoyable. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We value your feedback and appreciate your support.

Most Popular Post [See Here]