The September 19 coronation of Deputy President Kithure Kindiki as the Mt Kenya kingpin has exposed deep divisions within the Kiama Kia Ma Council of Elders, with two rival factions claiming legitimacy and each disputing the authority of the other.
A seven-hour secret meeting of 63 elders convened on September 28 by Kiama Kia Ma patron Kung’u Muigai, who is chairman of the Kenya Cultural Council Board, concluded that the council founded in 2010 is fractured and lacks a legitimate mandate to coronate anyone until the dispute is resolved through reconciliation or the courts.
The meeting also revived allegations that the council suffered a registration coup through forgery, setting the stage for the bitter contest over which faction has the authority to speak for the community.
More significantly, the dispute has exposed political fault lines ahead of the 2027 General Election, with allegations that former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua may have been involved in the events surrounding the council’s registration dispute.
Mr Gachagua has, however, distanced himself from the intrigue. Speaking to supporters in Kansas City during his ongoing visit to the United States, he dismissed the elders who coronated Prof Kindiki as ‘fake’.
Mr Muigai confirmed to the Daily Nation that the September 28 meeting began at 8pm and ended at about 2am.
“By the time we left the meeting, it was clear that the Kiama Kia Ma council that was formed in 2010 and was to hold elections every four years is no longer united and has fractured. The founders and subsequent convenor of the original Kiama Kia Ma have been overthrown,” he said.
The meeting concluded that the council is facing a legitimacy crisis, leaving two competing wings whose claims can only be resolved through reconciliation or a determination by a court of law.
Mr Muigai said that, as matters stand, neither faction has an undisputed mandate to coronate a community leader, potentially putting the legitimacy of the Kindiki ceremony in question.
Elders from Mt Kenya region install Deputy President Kithure Kindiki as the spokesperson of the region at Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu County.
Photo credit: DPCS
The coronation was held at Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu County by elders who said they were drawn from 11 counties and were operating under Kiama Kia Ma.
Mr Muigai told the meeting that a splinter group emerged in 2014 and began holding its own activities. The dispute escalated in 2018 when documents emerged showing that the breakaway faction had obtained registration certificates.
Documents tabled by Mr Duncan Muraguri of Murang’a County traced the dispute to the registration of the rival group.
In a letter dated August 26, 2019, the Office of the Attorney-General and Department of Justice wrote to the secretary of Kiama Kia Ma regarding certificate number SOC/64715.
Assistant Registrar of Societies Joanne Ogolla told the officials that a certificate of registration allegedly issued on August 20, 2019 and bearing her signature did not originate from her office and that the signature was not hers.
“The Certificate of Registration Number on the forged Certificate belongs to another registered Association Voice of Gospel Church in Africa; whereas the File Number SOC/62356 belongs to River Water Resources Users Association,” the Registrar stated.
Three years later, the matter reached the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In a letter dated December 1, 2022, reference ODPP/HQ/CAM/1/0001, to the Inspector General of Police, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Jacinta Nyamosi said the ODPP had received a complaint from lawyers representing Mr Joseph King’ori and Mr Charles Waweru over an allegedly forged certificate.
The two complainants had lodged Inquiry No. 16/2020 over the alleged forgery of their association certificate and said they had repeatedly asked authorities to act without success.
Deputy President Kithure Kindiki with elders at the solemn Mt Kenya elders assembly at Kirigiti Stadium, Kiambu County, where he was endorsed as the Mt Kenya spokesperson.
Photo credit: DPCS
The ODPP directed the Inspector General of Police to investigate the matter and forward the file with findings and recommendations.
Mr Muraguri claimed that when DCI officers eventually moved to arrest and charge two suspects, the process was stopped following what he described as a call from the Office of the Deputy President, then occupied by Mr Gachagua.
Mr Gachagua held the office from September 13, 2022 until October 2024, when he was impeached. Prof Kindiki took over in November 2024.
According to the elders briefed at the meeting, the faction at the centre of the dispute subsequently assembled a team of 40 elders who were registered as bona fide members of Kiama Kia Ma.
“The emergent constitution from that coup barred succession elections for 10 years, to mean change of guard can only happen in 2034, if there will be no further amendment of Kiama Kia Ma governing law,” Mr Muraguri said.
The faction’s alleged links to Mr Gachagua have become part of the political dispute. Members of the group were photographed twice at Mr Gachagua’s Wamunyoro home.
But on September 30, while speaking in the United States, the former Deputy President dismissed them as fake elders.
“I saw a group of fake elders coronate that fake deputy President as spokesman of what I don't know. Those are fake elders who even caused the crown to fall because everything from them was also fake,” he said.
Mr Gaithuma and Mr Kamunguna, who were named in the registration dispute, referred the Daily Nation to the Registrar of Societies, saying the records would show that they are the bona fide registered officials of the Kiama Kia Ma Council.
“There is no debate about that. We are the Council both by registration and by practice,” Mr Gaithuma said.
Mr Isaac Mwenda, representing Meru elders at the September 28 meeting, said the Kindiki coronation cost about Sh50 million.
Mr Mwenda said the organisers had planned the ceremony in secrecy after receiving intelligence that other elders were preparing to coronate a politician from Kirinyaga County as the region’s kingpin.
“We were told that we had only 12 hours to arrange and execute the Kindiki function. We were coordinated by an MP from Nyeri County. It was a race against time and we had to conclude the ceremony very fast because most of the attendees were not elders and could start shouting Wantam slogans if we delayed disbursing allowances,” he said.
The meeting was told that the organisers of the Kindiki ceremony had acted on intelligence that the Kirinyaga politician would be coronated at the Kamirithu shrines in Limuru on September 20, 2026, prompting them to schedule the Kirigiti ceremony a day earlier.
Ndia MP George Kariuki.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Ndia MP George Kariuki was among politicians who dismissed the Kindiki coronation as cosmetic. It remains unclear whether he was the politician expected to be coronated.
Mr Kariuki, however, said some elders involved in Kiama Kia Ma had previously held discussions with him before reneging on their agreement.
“There are elders in that Kiama Kia Ma who had held some talks with me but reneged on what we had agreed on, instead proceeding with that fake coronation of Prof Kindiki,” he said.
Prof Kindiki has distanced himself from the dispute, saying the coronation was an initiative of the elders.
“Those questions and concerns should be left to the elders. I was only their guest. They are the ones who should respond to those concerns. If you feel aggrieved, go and seek answers from them,” he recently said in Murang’a County.
Mr Kariuki did not directly answer whether he was the politician who was expected to be coronated, saying only that the Kindiki ceremony was “fake, irrelevant and inconsequential”.
“We are supposed to sit down properly and come up with a proper ceremony to pick our community leader,” he said.
On Tuesday, DP Kithure Kindiki camped in Kiambu for the second time within a week, consolidating support for President William Ruto ahead of Next year's General election.
Prof Kindiki has been leveraging his recent coronation by the elders as the political spokesman of the Mount Kenya region that took place last month at the historic Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu County.
Prof Kindiki said that under the administration of President William Ruto, the government has completed 368 kilometres of roads within Kiambu County at a cost of Sh20 billion, while another 247 kilometres are currently under construction.
On Tuesday, he toured Gatundu South and Kiambaa constituencies where he rallied locals to support President Ruto’s reelection, citing his development record.
The deputy president noted that the national government continue to invest in opening more health institutions for training health practitioners.
Kindiki says this is informed by the government’s recognition of the crucial contribution that the medical colleges make in producing medical professionals who, in turn, are playing a vital role towards the achievement of universal health care in the country.
He said this while addressing students, lecturers and workers at KMTC Kiambaa Campus, in Karuri, Kiambaa Constituency, Kiambu County, after inspecting construction works of a building block on the campus, in the company of the area MP John Njuguna Kawanjiki and Thika Town MP Alice Ng’ang’a.
The Deputy President also took the time to caution youth against drugs and other substance abuse, saying that this country is looking up to them to take over the affairs of running the country in the very near future.
