Mt Kenya elders have stirred debate over the fate of the community's leadership mantle, symbolically in the custody of Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, who received it from his predecessor Mwai Kibaki.
The politics of authority in the Agikuyu community has come to the fore after the 2022 general elections that produced two strong community leaders – an outgoing president, Mr Kenyatta, and a deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua.
Mr Kenyatta took over from outgoing President Kibaki in November 2012 and successfully contested the presidency in 2013 and 2017.
A controversial renewal of the leadership mantle took place during the 2022 transition, but efforts by outgoing President Kenyatta to invoke the horn to rally the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association (Gema) behind the presidential bid of his preferred successor, Raila Odinga, failed.
Mr Odinga lost to Dr William Ruto by a landslide in Mt Kenya, with Mr Gachagua, Dr Ruto's running mate, becoming deputy president.
As the community's most senior figure, Mr Gachagua is rallying the region behind him and vying for community supremacy.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Gachagua, once bosom friends and political allies, do not see eye to eye, leaving the elders in a dilemma over how to handle the two special sticks of authority (mithigi; muthigi, singular), which are divided into two categories – kingship and leadership.
The muthigi signifies one God (Mwene Nyaga) who is believed to reside in Mt Kenya (Kirima gia Kirinyaga) and before being presented as the anointed spokesman, they must first be taken for a 40-day prayer session at the throne of God in the mountain.
One of the sticks is straight, signifying belief in one God, while the other has two prongs at the top, signifying the ancestral spirits (ngomi).
To qualify as the leader, the man and his last born son must both have undergone circumcision.
The man is recommended to the community by two categories of elders – athuri a matathi and athuri a matura nguru – and is also approved by the highest elders, called arathi (prophets), after they have carried out their due diligence.
Central to the elders' plans is the harmonisation of Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta's roles in the political roadmap.
A member of the Kiama Kia Ma in Murang'a County, Mr James Chombou, told Nation.Africa on August 26 that efforts to establish a well-defined leadership structure in the region were at an advanced stage.
This was confirmed by the chairman of the Kikuyu Council of Elders, Mr Wachira Kiago.
Mr Chombou said, "What brought in problems in the community is that the Gachagua wing continued to persecute the Kenyatta wing to a point even those who had voted against Mr Odinga in the region ganged up to express love and pity for the former president".
The feeling that emerged in the mountain, he added, was that Mr Gachagua could not unite the region, with the elders insisting that Mr Kenyatta was better off continuing to play the role of kingpin and leader.
As Mr Gachagua struggled to exercise the full trappings of his new authority, he stepped on many toes and emerged as a man at war with everyone and everything.
But when Mr Gachagua emerged a changed man after a year and a half in power, he apologised to the Kenyatta family and also declared that he had healed his negative energies.
"I came into power a very bitter man owing to the persecutions that I had been taken through by the Kenyatta regime...I was badly wounded and persecuted...But after more than one year of being prayed for by my wife (Pastor Dorcas Rigathi) I have healed completely to the point that I now only desire peace," Mr Gachagua declared on June 3 while in Meru County.
On August 4, in another interview with Mt Kenya vernacular TV stations, the DP announced that "I and Kenyatta are fully reconciled and are partnering on a major project to unite our people".
It is because of this character development that the elders now believe the time is ripe for Mr Gachagua to be entrusted with the leadership stick (mutongoria) and Mr Kenyatta to be recognised as the community king (muthamaki).
According to Kiama kia Ma national patron, Mr Kung'u Muigai, who is incidentally Mr Kenyatta's cousin, the leadership stick in the custody of the former head of state will be oiled to upgrade it to that of Muthamaki.
"Mr Gachagua will now be handed a leadership stick and their roles will be well defined. In the new roles, Mr Kenyatta will not be engaging in day-to-day political tussles and theatrics, [but will be] confined to advising and arbitrating," Mr Muigai said.
He added that Mr Gachagua will be tasked with implementing decisions made at the council of the king.
"With the advice and consultations of Kenyatta and elders, Mr Gachagua will take the region to political wars, negotiations and sealing of pacts," Mr Muigai said.
The elders are stepping in to heal the region's political rift after Mr Gachagua dismissed them as "too divided, sectarian and compromised" in an interview with Kameme TV on March 25.
The DP had added that many elders in the area could not even be trusted to supervise the brewing of the traditional muratina brew because "they will not be patient to wait for it to ferment for the required seven days".
On Monday, Mr Chombou admitted that "we have been meeting as elders and Gachagua was right".
“We also have our issues since some of us are agents of divisions and others are true sellouts...But we have also realised the danger this regime presents us and we must unite," he added.
On Monday, Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri insisted that "I and Gachagua need no arbitration...there is nothing to reconcile. He only needs to respect me. I respect him and in that mutual respect there will be peace between me and him...otherwise, if he attacks me, I will always hit back".
Mr Kiago said "a lot of work has been done to bring together elders, clergy, business community and societal groups to bring the two together".
"So far, we can report that we are on the good course since the 2022 hostilities that saw Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta exchange bitter words have now been pacified, arbitrated and reconciled".
Mr Kiago added, "Bringing Gachagua and Uhuru together for 2027 is not an illusion but an urgency, it's not a fantasy but a crucial necessity".
The culmination of the campaign, the elders say, will be a community conference that will declare critical landmark charters for 2027.
This means that any aspiring presidential candidate who wants to court the populous Mt Kenya vote will have to woo Mr Kenyatta, Mr Gachagua and area elders.
But the elders insist that tributaries flow into the big river, implying that as the largest single voting bloc in the country, it will be their duty to find tributaries that flow into Mt Kenya, and hence their duty to coronate the 2027 presidential candidate.
It is an issue that has brought Mr Gachagua's opponents out in full force. Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri dismisses the plot as "isolationist".
Mr Kiunjuri told Nation.Africa that "Gachagua only seeks to make Mt Kenya an island that will have no national relevance".
"Gachagua is engaged in establishing a tribal force hell-bent on removing the region from the government and blackmailing President William Ruto".
Nyeri Town MP David Mathenge on Tuesday said that "this habit of capture will not work...We are ready to cooperate with all as long as the basis of that union is founded on mutual respect.”
