Tales of Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga shrine

Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga is believed to be the home of Gikuyu and Mumbi, the father and mother of the Agikuyu community.

Since time immemorial, the Agikuyu people, from far and wide, visit the shrine to conduct rituals and offer sacrifices to avert calamity or bring to an end a catastrophe on the community.

The shrine in the sleepy village of Gaturi in Murang’a County, is revered and feared in equal measure due to the wonders that have reportedly happened there.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

The cultural heritage sits on 4.25 acres, a portion of which is considered holy ground and women are not allowed to enter, while men who go in must be ‘clean’ to conduct rituals or sacrifices.

Local tourists and religious groups like the Akorino visit the shrine regularly to pray and learn from elders how Gikuyu and Mumbi lived.

The Agikuyu believe that their god directed their ancestors to settle in an area between four hills: Kirinyaga to the north), Kiambiruiru also known as Ngong Hills (south), Kianjahi (east) and Nyandarua ridges to the west.

Gikuyu was also told to settle in an area where he would find a Mukurwe tree nested by birds known as Nyagathanga. On reaching the place, the birds sang to him and he knew he had reached his destination.

To date, the community respects and cherishes the shrine, which is now a site under the National Museums of Kenya.

SHRINE

Area residents hold the shrine so dear that they have a rota of who visits the revered site on which day to sweep and welcome visitors who troop in daily to understand the mystery and history of the place.

Mzee Karanja Muguti, who was born and grew up in the village, says there have been miracles and wonders happening at the shrine, which make residents to fear and revere the site in equal measure.

Mzee Muguti says that in the 1950s, during the Mau Mau war, home guards had converted the shrine into camps where arrested Mau Mau fighters were held.

They would later abandon the camp in fear after mysterious lightning struck and burnt down a hut where a prisoner was being detained for defying a curfew.

“It is said that although the hut burnt down, the prisoner and his cow, which had also been detained in the compound, were unhurt.

Moreover, the flames of fire chased anyone who tried to go near the camp, forcing the home guards to relocate their camp,” he says.

CHANGING ROOMS

Another ‘wonder’ that happened at the shrine, Mzee Mutugi says, was when the defunct Murang’a County Council built a complex building at the site comprising of an amphitheatre, swimming pool, changing rooms and lodgings despite warnings from the elders.

Mr Muguti says that although the building was completed, the contractor ran away from the site at night leaving behind some tools.

“We had resisted the idea of building lodgings at a sacred place and even sought the assistance of [Prof] Wangari Maathai who mobilised locals to plant trees, but even before we filed a lawsuit, we woke up one day to find that the contractor had vanished.

The Sh20 million abandoned facility lies idle at the shrine with complete rooms.

Mr Muguti remembers with nostalgia how in 2010, a section of Akorino sect members visited the shrine and offered a sacrifice under a Muringa tree only for them to hear loud thunder at night when a huge fire broke out from the tree stem.

ATTACKED BY ANTS

An elderly woman, Wangui Maina, recalled that in 2016, a schoolgirl who was in the company of her colleagues visited the site wearing a pair of trousers and was warned against entering the shrine. She defied the warning and was attacked by ants.

“It’s a holy place; the student was the only one who was attacked by ants and she was the only one who saw them while the rest did not. It took our intervention and we helped her,” she told the Nation.

Wangui said whoever visits the shrine is warned of the boundaries beyond which they may not go.

There are places that can only be accessed by elders who have undergone all the Agikuyu traditional rights of passage.

Area residents claim that some trees at the site are over 1,000 years old and that in the past, they could hear ululations from the shrine, the smell of traditional food and also hear goats bleating, a sign that their god still dwells there.

Locals want the government to fence off the shrine, dig a borehole and revamp the abandoned building and convert the units into rooms where initiates can be circumcised and mentored.

They also want the units converted into classrooms to teach about the Agikuyu customs and traditions.