.webp "Karũri Wa Gakure")
The Story of Karũri Wa Gakure
The Early Life of Karuri Wa Gakure
Karũri wa Gakure was born in or around 1849 at Kanorero of Iyego location in Mũrang’a in the Gĩkũyũ reigning generation of Maina. He was born together with two brothers, Kĩguma and Ngarũ and sisters Wambũi, Mũthoni and Gacoki and numerous step- brothers and step- sisters including one Wambũi who was thereafter to be mama of Jomo Kenyatta.
They were born into the Ambũi clan but when the father Gakure, died their youthful mama left the Ambũi clan and joined with her children including Karũri the Angarĩ clan where they were re-born ceremonially.
Tuthũ Wa Karuri
The particular Mbarĩ they joined was called Njono and lived in Kangema, near the Marĩmĩra forest.
The Angarĩ clan would later migrate to Kĩgumo midway between Kanyenya-ini and Tuthũ and it was here that Karũri grew up and settled as an adult.
When he was ready to marry, Karuri collected the necessary dowry and married Nduta, daughter of Kihia wa Kibe of Kanyenya-ini. Karuri built a house for his wife Nduta in Kigumo. During this time, Karuri was active in hunting elephants.
He traded in ivory with the Arabs who came inland as far as Naivasha. In order to increase his income, Karuri decided to practice traditional medicine even without having been an apprentice.
With thirty goats, he bought his first batch of herbs from Githaiga wa Muya, Gikerumi wa Karura and Ndorobo in the nearby forests.
Eventually, he was sworn in with great ceremony at the office as a traditional healer. This job made him famous everywhere. Karuri's fame increased when he agreed to give war medicine to the Karura (Kiambu) warriors in their eternal wars with the Naivasha Maasai. He even led them into battle after applying the medicine that was supposed to make them invincible.
It is unknown whether Karuri went with the warriors into battle as 'Muthigani' or head of the war council 'Njama'. The head chief Muthigani (spy/scout leader) carried the 'githitu' (war medicine preparations) without which the warriors would surely lose the attack.
They are easily used due to Karuri's belief in medicine and its presence. This earned him a huge wealth of animals which were stolen from the losers. This ultimately led to his rise to leadership, a role he had long coveted. It may be important to mention here that Chief Kikuyu Muthigani and his assistants along with the Council of War (Njama) divided their warriors into three sections:
1.Gitungati (Reserve). They were the best fighters who had proven themselves in previous fights. They also acted as guards for the Muthigani using the precious 'ithitu' (war amulets);
2.Ngerewani (Advanced Guard). They were young warriors, some of whom would be on their first foray and eager to prove themselves;
3. Murima (Rear Guards). It was the elder warriors who waited to receive the invading cattle and lead them to the safe edge of the forest while the 'itungati' and 'ngerewani' held the enemies at bay.
Chief Wangombe, Karuri's Main Enemy
Chief Wangombe, an ally of the Maasai of Nanyuki and Rumuruti, disliked Karuri's power and fame. Along with his Maasai allies, he attacked Karuri at a time when the country of Karuri was experiencing a famine. Karuri decided not to fight and got his weak warriors to safety.
Wangombe attacked the defenseless villagers, burning and looting them, and left with great spoils.
He planned to go back and this time get rid of Karuri for good. But Chief Karuri was well prepared for the next time.
He caused the death of about half of the warriors fleeing from Chief Wangombe. The defeat was so severe that Chief Wangombe sent emissaries to sue for peace. The two leaders performed a "Blood Ritual" for peace and friendship. They swore not to fight anymore. Karuri also defeated Chief Ndiuini wa Murathimi and his brother Ngambi. After that, all the other minor Chief’s feared him and weren't a problem for him.
As a young man, Karũri endeared himself to his warrior band, Njaama, with exceptional leadership qualities and business acumen. They hunted and collected elephant tusks in the adjacent Aberdare Forest and sold them to Arab traders who came from the coast to Kamba land to collect them.
Being a rather ambitious and stressed young man, he decided to pursue the lucrative career of medicine and divination, Ũgo. He was able to finance the expensive process of training and initiation into the Gĩkũyũ cult of Ũgo through the ivory trade and would become a very successful and famous Mũndũ Mũgo (Medicine Man).
His war medicine was so successful that his warriors always conquered the Maasai and many warriors sided with him. Thus, he obtains the status of warlord, Mũthamaki.
This should not be confused with Mũthamaki, current president of a civic court of elders, Kĩama.
These were clan and judicial administrative councils that always had rotating presidents who acted like the speaker of a modern parliament and whose sole responsibility was to moderate discussions in the Kĩama.
They were not leaders and it was during the moderator's tenure that he was called Mũthamaki.
These leaderless courts confused the colonial administration and thus elevated much more visible warlords such as Karũri and Njiiri to the status of tribal leaders or colonial representatives at the local level.
When the settlers arrived in Gĩkũyũland, Karũri was the undisputed warlord in virtually all of Mũrang'a, Waiyaki wa Hinga was undisputed in Kabete, Wang'ombe wa Ihũũra ruled the western flank of Mount Kenya with minor warlords such as Ndũinĩ wa Mũrathimi and Wambũgũ wa Mahangani.
These warlords don't seem to have much to do with civic administration and have been busy keeping the peace and protecting the general populace from too many healers or malevolent healers, Arogi.
They are the ones who practiced the inverted ego; what will later be called witchcraft by the Church of the White Man. In fact, Karũri himself in the early years of his career as a healer was referred to as Mũrogi, due to the many mysterious deaths attributed to him. The warriors gathered at night and surrounded his hut when they were sure he was inside and set it on fire.
As he let out wild cries and curses from within, the fire tore through the hut. They were happy to get rid of him, but he came out of the episode unscathed. This made them fear even more and his fame spread throughout the country of Gĩkũyũ and some called him Karua na Ngai, circumcised with God.
These warlords, in addition to dealing with external threats from the Maasai and maintaining local peace, sometimes had internal conflicts with each other. Wang'ombe wa Ihũũra is probably the most famous Gĩkũyũ warrior of all time.
He learned his warfare from the Maasai and was a close ally with them. So when a serious argument broke out between Wang'ombe and Karũri, it seemed like an unequal match when it came to crafting and visible resources. Coupled with the power of the famous Supreme Warrior, Wang'ombe, Karũri looked like a simple guy indulging in mindless magic.
But it turned out to be a mental war against power, with the terrible forces of the Maasai War machine dissipating against Karũri's war medicine. Father Joachim Gĩtonga, in his short but detailed book, The Paramount Chief Karũri wa Gakure, offers a gripping, step-by-step, fast-paced account of the clash of these two that would make one of the greatest films ever made in Africa.
According to the author, this war which should aptly be titled "The Humiliation of Wang'ombe wa Ihũũra", Karũri deployed the full power of his war medicine, Gĩthitũ, against Wang'ombe and struck him hard. The place of the final confrontation is still called Gĩitwa or the place of the slaughter where almost all the men of Wangombe perished. He then sent a bull hide to Karũri in recognition of his defeat.
When the British colonial administration was established in Gĩkũyũland at the turn of the last century, the colonizers simply elevated the warlords to the status of civic government leaders in a hitherto headless society governed more by a complex system of taboos imposed mainly by the individual conscience and fear.
If necessary, a Council of Elders, Kĩama, was constituted, sometimes by request and mainly a clan council which dealt with clan affairs such as boundary disputes, marriage and serious crimes such as murder or witchcraft. Otherwise, a normal Gĩkũyũ could go on with life without the need for a visible government.
The Warrior Council has become a police administration under the command of the colonial chief, and so today the government imposes such mundane things as what I can and cannot cook in my own kitchen.
Karũri, being elevated to the rank of paramount chief, had to don his Gĩthii or goatskin cloak and a great British cloak. He had to put aside his powerful medicine and serve a master with medicine stronger than his own.
As a war for the hearts and minds of the Gĩkũyũ, it was played very well. This is how the psychological operation of Conquest for Christ in Kenya is described. Yes, Conquest.
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First Contacts with Europeans
Chief Karuri provided labor for the IBEA company at Fort Smith (now Kikuyu Town) during the construction of the Uganda Railway. Francis Hall had already recruited Kikuyu from Fort Smith as porters between Machakos and Ravine. For some time, Hall had wanted to open up the interior of the Kikuyu lands by creating an administrative station.
It was during this time, during Karuri's travels to Naivasha and Karura (Kiambu), that he met Francis Hall.
Hall had already made a treaty with Chief Kinyanjui, and it is unlikely that Karuri crossed into Kinyanjui territory, or even met Hall without Kinyanjui's knowledge. At Matson, in his Autobiography of Hall, writes that Muranga chiefs had long been asking Hall to build a station in their area, without mentioning Karuri by name.
Plot to Kill Karũri Wa Gakure
They conspired to burn him, his house and possessions, and his precious amulets at night. However, just as the hut was about to burst into flames, Karuri could be heard shouting curses and insults from his abode.
From his home, Karuri confessed to killing several people and threatening to kill anyone who tried to burn him and his house down. The pleas and screams convinced everyone that the wizard had died in hell.
Karuri had long suspected that he would burn himself inside and had secretly dug a tunnel from the hut to a cliff overlooking the Mathioya River, from where he jumped after his dramatic show. He escaped to Njumbi, to resurface a few days later at the head of a group of warriors offered by his benefactor and friend Mbaria.
When Karuri made his second coming, his family and villagers mistook him for a ghost. Others thought he had risen from the dead and called him Karua na Ngai (one who had been circumcised with the gods) and others Karuru.
The shocked villagers of Iyego begged for peace, fearing they would be wiped out by the wizard who had the power to cheat death and showered him with gifts and swore never to fight him again.
Karuri is said to have deceived Wang'ombe wa Ihura of Mathira and Ndiuni wa Murathimi of Tetu, as well as Wambugu wa Mahangania of Nyeri to become the sorcerer, warrior and overlord. After these victories, Karuri turned his attention to Kabete, where strange white men were seen.
He was there to sell his wares and this time he visited Kinyanjui wa Gathirimu and asked to be introduced to the Europeans. Francis Hall documents Karuri's visit to Kikuyu in a letter dated June 10, 1894 to Paul Sullivan's Kikuyu District.
“I had a visit from Wakikuyu from Merang'a, the district at the foot of Kenya… they begged me to open a station. I gave them a letter and a flag in case the Freelanders wanted to go. I promised to visit them at the first opportunity I had."
John Bowes, the Government Impersonator
At a time when there was no British administration in central Kikuyu, Karuri became involved with John Bowes, a white merchant of dubious character. Bowes was the first white man most central Kikuyu saw.
He inspired much admiration for the courage to venture where many feared. During the famine which ravaged the land at that time, he was the only trader who could supply the Mombasa caravan with grain from the interior which was better.
Finally, once Mbiri station was well established, Francis Hall ordered its capture. Karianjahi (lalablab bean eater), as he was called by the locals, went on flying excursions disguised as punitive expeditions to accumulate wealth while remaining close to Karuri in a symbiotic relationship.
Bowes was accused of impersonating the government. At the time of his arrest, Bowes was a wealthy man with three Kikuyu wives.
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The Consolata Mission
Sometime in 1902, the coronation of King Edward VII was celebrated by his subjects in the new East African Protectorate, particularly Nairobi. The Consolata Fathers had just landed in the city of Turin, Italy, coming from the port of Mombasa by the new railway. They had already decided to evangelize the Kikuyu.
They wondered how to proceed inside safely because of the many bad stories they had heard about the savagery of the Kikuyu. Turns out Chief Karuri was in town.
When he learned of their intention to evangelize the Kikuyus, he not only offered them safe conduct, but also the land on which to build their mission station. The Fathers describe Karuri as "an astute man of great insight, who had previously maintained that with the coming of the Europeans his country would undergo a great change". After a three-day trip, the group celebrated its first mass on June 29, 1902.
The Consolata Mission also credits Karuri with kindly donating the land on which Hall built a fort in Mbiri. Matson, on the other hand, names a chief Riunthiwa Rangu, an unlikely name for a Kikuyu, as the chief who "suggested the ridge above the Mathioya River as the most suitable place for the Murang'a station”. The station was called Mbiri, but was later changed to Fort Hall in memory of Francis Hall.
The Consolata Fathers began their evangelization program with unparalleled zeal. After only eighteen months among the Kikuyu, they had seven mission stations in Kikuyuland.
Due to his cooperation with the emerging colonial government, Karuri was crowned paramount chief. His companions were Wangombe wa Ihura in Mathira and Kinyanjui, who replaced Chief Waiyaki wa Hinga after the latter's arrest and disappearance. Karuri occasionally attended church services and catechism.
Fort Hall was the pre-colonial name of present-day Murang'a. It became a center of colonial administration for the subjugation of the Kikuyu in the interior. The Kikuyu nicknamed Francis, Nyahoro, (Bwana Hora, according to Matson) probably a corruption of 'Hall'. Muriuki claims the name is derived from the Kikuyu word for cool due to the role he played in bringing peace out of war. Hall died of illness on March 18, 1901.
When Joseph and his wife Wanjiru Maria were baptized. He later charmed the missionaries when, at age 60, he enrolled in adult classes and mastered the art of writing his name.
Shortly after, his favorite son, David Gakure, left to study in Europe. However, Gakure was kicked out of Europe for misbehavior, shocking the overlord and earning his ire. Gakure's rage knew no bounds, as demonstrated earlier when a group of uncircumcised boys humiliated his favorite wife, Wanjiru.
One day, Wanjiru was going to visit a friend in the company of friends; but the party was attacked by a group of mischievous children in Wanjerere who were feasting on the treats carried by the women.
When Gakure discovered this, he decreed that no boy would be circumcised for three years. It took the intervention of the elders to revoke the decree, but only after the elders showered it with goats and sacks of millet and begged for forgiveness.
Gitonga explains that Gakure allowed the resumption of the circumcision ceremony on the condition that each initiate pay a fine of two rupees. This had to be collected by the chiefs of the entire Murang'a district before the operation.
The money for this tax and other taxes was kept in a safe in his stone house, where Muchai wa Muetithia worked as an "accountant" to take care of the finances. Karuri's attraction to Wangu wa Makeri, who was the wife of his former companion, proved fatal for the villagers of Koimbi, who grew tired of giving Karuri gifts every time he visited his mistress. .
Each time he visited Koimbi, which was often the case, goats and calves were rounded up for sacrifice: his agents confiscated others, which generated hatred among the inhabitants. During a visit in May 1916, his food was mixed with potent strains that blinded him.
His personal sorcerer, Gitonga wa Migwi, attempted to restore it, but to no avail. The missionaries also tried to resuscitate his friend, but he died of what the locals believed was a type of medicine more powerful than his own.
His son Gichuki, who also succumbed to a similar curse after a brief period, succeeded him. His death paved the way for Deputy Chief Abraham Michuki Kagwi, father of the late Cabinet Minister John Michuki, to take over as head of Iyego Location.
Echoes of Karuri's tyrannical rule are heard every time vehicles carve the winding curves along the 13-kilometre Tuthu-Kanyenyaini-Murang'a highway, where their ingenuity has bridged 14 creeks and 40 bends in hair pin. He painted with red ocher all those who finished the day's part of digging the road and rewarded them with flour as wages.
The End of Traditional Kikuyu Rule
Paramount chiefs presided over the overthrow of traditional Kikuyu governments. Previously, the Muthamaki was responsible to the council of elders to which he belonged, not forgetting his Riika (age group), his Mbari (large family unit) and his Muhiriga (clan).
These paramount chiefs could only be questioned by the colonial administration, which they served with excessive zeal. They took whatever they wanted from their "subjects", including land and animals, while collecting rural taxes for the government. Even by European standards, they were rich, very rich.
Chief Karuri is said to have gone out of his way to ensure that anyone who desired the white man's favor went through him. Those who aspired to be chiefs brought gifts to Chief Karuri so that he could speak well with Francis Hall. Ultimately, Chief Karuri became a "tin god", as Muriuki calls him in his History of the Kikuyu.
It seems that the Overlords had the power to appoint bosses. Karuri is credited with appointing Wangu wa Makeri as the first Kikuyu chief (some call him sub-chief).
Wangu wa Makeri became a legendary figure in Kikuyu oral history. Find out more about Wangu
Karuri wa Gakure Baptized
On January 14, 1906, Reverend Perlo, in a grand ceremony attended by all Consolata missionaries and non-believers, baptized the paramount chief. He was at least 70 years old when he was baptized. Karuri took the name Joseph, while his wife Wanjiru took the name Consolata.
The ceremony included a Christian wedding. We don't know what happened to his first wife, Nduta. It is known that Karuri had up to sixty wives who looked after his interests in various parts of the country. As Catholics preached monogamy, it is likely that Nduta died and all his other wives were considered illegitimate.
“In 1915, Karoli's health began to deteriorate, which alarmed his family. He asked to be baptized and this so impressed the Father Superior that he asked Monsignor Father Perlo to baptize him with all possible solemnity.
In the presence of many missionaries and neophytes from nearby mission stations, and many chiefs, including Chief Njili and Chief Moriranja (the chiefs came at the personal invitation of Karoli), and a large part of the native population, the sacrament was administered. .
The chief's baptismal name was Joseph (at the same time his wife Wanjiro was baptized). Such a religious act had never been performed in Tuso, and in living memory there has never been such a public gathering for a secular or religious event, although for years it was the place where the greatest chief of the Kikuyu lived.
There was an Italian farmer nearby who came to watch the ceremony in his car. His offer to take the royal couple to town was accepted. As the car slowly moved down the road, passers-by cheered and raised their voices in pure joy.
The celebration lasted three days, but the memory lasted for years and many who live today remember the event as told by their parents and grandparents.
There could be no better way to prepare people's minds and hearts to receive the gospel message.
Shortly afterwards, in May 1916, in the village of Tuthũ, the famous paramount chief died, a victim, it was said, of powerful witchcraft from the neighboring Withhaga. He was buried at the Tuthũ Consolata Mission.
The sad image of the fallen giant forced to refuse the baptism of his other wives and give up the powerful medicine of war stands in stark contrast to his deeply moving colorful past. Is this the fate of the tribe?
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