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Facing Mount Kenya
Jomo Kenyatta
(First published 1938)
The Gikuyu System of Government
The Gikuyu system of government prior to the advent of the Europeans was based on true democratic principles. But according to the tribal legend, once upon a time there was a king in Gikuyuland, named Gikuyu, a grandchild of the elder daughter of the founder of the tribe. He ruled many moons and his method of governing was tyrannical. People were prevented from cultivating the land, as he commanded that all able-bodied men should join his army and be ready to move with their families at any time and to wherever he chose. Thus the population lived a sort of nomadic life and suffered many hardships from lack of food. At last they grew tired of wandering from place to place and finally decided to settle down. They approached the King and implored him to let them cultivate the land and establish permanent homes, but owing to his autocratic power he refused to hear or consider their plea. The people were very indignant with him for turning a deaf ear to their appeal, and in desperation they revolted against him. The generation which carried out the revolt was called iregi (revolter), and the next generation which started cultivation was given the name ndemi (cutters) in remembrance of the period when the Gikuyu people began to cut down the forests and established themselves as agriculturalists.
After King Gikuyu was dethroned, the government of the country was at once changed from a despotism to a democracy which was in keeping with the wishes of the majority of the people. This revolution is known as itwika, derived from the word twika, which means to break away from and signified the breaking away from autocracy to democracy. This achievement was celebrated all over the country; feasting, dancing and singing went on with intervals for a period of six moons which preceded the new era of government by the people and for the people. In order to run the new government successfully, it was necessary to have a constitution, so during this time of festivities a revolutionary council, njama ya itwika, was formed to draft the constitution. "In fact it seems probable that the reason why kingly government was the rule in early times is that it was rare to find persons of extremely eminent virtue, especially as the states of those times were small. And further, kingly power was then conferred upon individuals as reward of services rendered to the State. But it is the function of good men to render such services, and if they were rewarded with kingly power, the number of good men must have been very small. In process of time, however, there came to be a number of persons equally virtuous, and then they no longer submitted to kingly rule, but sought to establish a sort of commune or constitutional government. From Oligarchies they passed in the first instance to Tyrannies and from Tyrannies again to Democracy." (from The Politics of Aristotle)
Every village appointed a representative to the Council, which took the responsibility of drafting the new constitution. The first Council meeting was held at a place called Mokorwe wa Gathanga, situated in the centre of the Gikuyu country where the tribe is believed to have originated. At the first meeting of the njama ya itwika it was decided that in order to maintain harmony in the government of the country, it was necessary to make a few rules which would act as the guiding principles in the new government; and the following rules, which afterwards became law, were made:
1. Freedom for the people to acquire and develop land under a system of family ownership.
2. Universal tribal membership, as the unification of the whole tribe, the qualification for it to be based on maturity, and not on property. For this reason it was then decided that every member of the community, after passing through the circumcision ceremony as a sign of adulthood, should take an active part in the government; and that males should go through this initiation between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, and females between the age of ten and fourteen.
3. Socially and politically all circumcised men and women should be equally full members of the tribe, and thereby the status of a king or nobleman should be abolished.
4. The government should be in the hands of councils of elders (kiama) chosen from all members of the community, who had reached the age of eldership, having retired from warriorhood. And the position of elders should be determined by a system of age-grading.
5. All young men between the ages of eighteen and forty should form a warrior class (anake), and be ready to defend the country, and that the country should respect them and have pride in them.
6. In times of need, the Government should ask the people to contribute in rotation sheep, goats, or cattle, for national sacrifices or other ceremonies performed for the welfare of the whole people.
7. In order to keep up the spirit of the itwika, and to prevent any tendency to return to the system of despotic government, the change of, and the election for, the government offices should be based on a rotation system of generations. The community was divided into two categories: (a) mwangi, (b) maina or irungu. Membership was to be determined by birth, namely, if one generation is mwangi, their sons shall be called maina, and their grandsons be called mwangi, and so on. It was further decided that one generation should hold the office of government for a period of thirty to forty years, at the end of which the ceremony of itwika should take place to declare that the old generation had completed its term of governing, and that the young generation was ready to take over the administration of the country.
8. All men and women must get married, and that no man should be allowed to hold a responsible position other than warrior, or become a member of the council of elders (kiama) unless he was married and had established his own homestead. And that women should be given the same social status as their husbands.
9. Criminal and civil laws were established and procedure clearly defined. Rules and regulations governing the behaviour between individuals and groups within the Government were laid down.
