Why Ruto asked 40 bishops to cleanse State House from Uhuru kenyatta’s spell

Uhuru kenyatta received the mantle in November 2012 to take over from Mwai Kibaki, and this saw him contest the presidency in 2013 and 2017 on behalf of the Agikuyu.

“We in 2012 handed him two special sticks (mithigi; muthigi, singular) that symbolise acceptance to lead. These are not ordinary sticks, because they have sacred rituals and accompanying instruments attached to them,” Agikuyu Council of Elders chairman Wachira Kiago said.

One of the sticks is straight and denotes believe in one God while the other comes with two prongs at the top end, signifying the ancestral spirits (ngomi).

For one to qualify for such trappings of the apex leadership of the communities, one must be a male, who together with his last-born son must be circumcised.

That man is recommended to the community by two categories of elders – athuri a matathi and athuri a Matura Nguru – and the endorsement of the apex of elders called arathi (prophets) after conducting their own due diligence.

“The arathi particularly vet whether the proposed community spokesman has engaged in serious crimes like murder, witchcraft and rape/defilement. No one found to have engaged in general crime against the community qualifies to be anointed as a leader,” Mr Kiago said.

The muthigi signifying one God (Mwene Nyaga) and who is believed to reside in Mt Kenya (Kirima gia Kirinyaga) before presentation to the anointed spokesman is first taken for a 40-day prayer session at the throne of God in the mountain.

Having done this 10 years ago, the prophets did not do it this time around because after deliberations they decided that “the President is still young and has not shown any sign of duty dereliction and hence a unanimous decision to renew the mantle for him”.

In the custody of the President now are the two sticks – the two-pronged one being the bearer of the power to lead – a circumciser’s knife that bestows the President with power to circumcise the community’s lads and a set of stringed beads that gives him the power to recommend the dressing code for elders and others in their collective ringermates.

He was also presented with a sword that gives him the power to slaughter a goat for rituals as well as a horn to empower him to rally the community together for a cause.

“The President was also handed a spear and a Somali sword that empowers him to call his people to war,” he said.

And immediately after his leadership mantle was renewed, the President invoked the horn to rally the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association (Gema) behind the presidential bid of Raila Odinga in the Azimio la Umoja coalition.

“Most of the deliberations in the meeting cannot be discussed in an unstructured manner…That will go against our oath of confidentiality. But suffice to say that the President made his case for one uninterrupted hour in the Gikuyu language and we took the oath to rally our people behind that cause,” Mr Kiago said.

Independent State House sources revealed that the President narrated to the elders – who numbered 3,500 and came from across the country where Gema people reside or work – the frustration he had endured at the hands of his deputy William Ruto.