It’s back to the shrine for leadership as old kingdom installs new king

Every passing minute heightened the anxiety of the gathered royalty. Time and tide wait for no man — not even a king.

The ceremony was the exhumation of Nabongo Rapando of the Wanga Kingdom, who died 73 years ago for reburial, after which a new king would be crowned.

The hitch was that though the elders knew the general area where the king was laid to rest, the grave was otherwise unmarked.

The search was frantic. The new king had to be crowned by 4 a.m. on the appointed day, so said Mzee Hussein Orata, 92, the man bestowed with the sacrosanct duty of leading the ceremony.

The pall bearers had to deliver the remains of the old chief to the shrines before the kingdom subjects awaken.

Waiting at the site was Prince Japheth Wambani Rapando, 86, the king-in-waiting.

Dead of the night

The search climbed a notch higher. This obscure place — the local people call it Eshembekho in Emulambo village, East Wanga Division, Mumias District — was a beehive of activity in the dead hours of the night. Young men frantically searched the thickets trying their very best to beat time. Half an hour later, there were no signs of the grave yet.

Mzee Orata, then turned to divination and asked the long dead king to accept that his son be crowned Nabongo “to look after the people you left behind”.

“Please do not ashame us, it is a big day for you and the people you led,” said the old man.

He was entranced, talking as though the fallen king was right there, listening to him. No sooner had Mzee Orata finished than one of those combing the thicket discovered a pot with two holes that covered the head of the dead man when he was buried seven decades ago.

The exhumation then began, all the while, Mzee Orata speaking in indeterminate tongues or sipping from a bottle of yellow liquid stuff which he spat around the grave. He then said a traditional prayer to the gods as the ritual got under way.

On retrieval, the skull and bones were washed and anointed with milk cream fats. It was then wrapped in the hide of a freshly slaughtered bull and shipped off to the Shimuli shrine — eight kilometres away — where four other Nabongos were laid to rest eons ago.

Royal lineage

Patrick Karani, 65, did the washing. He was picked as he comes from outside the royal lineage. He would be paid Sh50,000, a cow and a cock for washing and transporting the remains to the shrine. He was not supposed to look behind or even rest along the way until he arrived at the shrine lest the ancestors disapproved of the ceremony.

The journey to the shrine, in the chilly morning, is the longest and one that will be remembered for long. Karani carried the remains on his shoulders without resting for the more than eight kilometre journey to the 3.5-acre thicket opposite the Mumias Sugar Company.

The reburial is important because the deceased Nabongo, believed to be still watching upon his people, can no longer share power with the new one supposed to be in charge after installation, said Mzee Orata.

The new king says that in 1967, President Jomo Kenyatta intervened through Parliament to have the shrine preserved arguing that cultures must be respected and preserved. A sugar miller had wanted to plant sugarcane at the site.

The shrine has three entrances and one is not allowed to leave using the same gate used to gain entry. The remains of the dead king were ushered in through the east gate, watched by a curious crowd of subjects. A mock war was staged before entering the thicket to symbolise the preparedness of the king’s soldiers to fight enemies trespassing the shrine.

The crowd kept a distance as the elders moved into the shrine (Shembekho).  Mzee Orata followed Karani closely leading the rest in a traditional song.

A bull whose ear was cut the previous night was slaughtered near the shrine and its blood sprinkled on the graves of the departed Nabongos just before a fresh grave was dug and the remains of Nabongo Rapando reburied.

The thicket is known for dangerous wild animals and reptiles, but Mzee Orata asked the animals not to interfere with the ceremonies. Wanga people strongly believe the dead would restrain wild animals from attacking during such ceremonies.

Meat is roasted in plenty and Busaa is taken indiscriminately by the young and the elderly. The new king’s wives Julia Nanzala and Maria Adipo danced to the traditional special dance drums, spraying milk into the charged crowd.

Meanwhile, the grave was refilled, and some more rituals observed at the site. Mzee Orata then led other elders to the home of Prince Wambani, where a bull and a sheep had been slaughtered.

The animals’ blood was used to cleanse the home, as people enjoyed plenty of liquor in the vast compound. Accompanying the merry-making was amabwi (a dance to traditional drumbeats) as the ceremony approached a crescendo. Prince Wambani was moved to a secluded house where he was clothed in traditional royal regalia, handed a spear and two golden bracelets, and one made of sheepskin.

For a quarter an hour, Mzee Orata appeased ancestors and performed rituals to install the new King of Wanga. The door was then opened and the new king stepped out to meet his people amid ululations from the crowd. His wives were carrying calabashes that contained roast meat, simsim and milk, which they sprayed onto the singing subjects of the new king.

Thus did Wambani Rapando take the mantle from his father and predecessor Nabongo Rapando 73 years after the latter’s death.

The Wanga Kingdom was one of the most organised political dynasties in East Africa. Some versions of oral and written history have it that the kingdom once extended from parts of Uganda to Naivasha in Kenya.

According to Simon Kenyanchui in the book Makers of Kenya’s History, the Nabongo was the executive head of the central government, the final counsellor and adviser, because he was regarded as wise, benign, benevolent and neutral.

He was also the source of peace and stability and the custodian of traditions and customs. Mumia, the 17th Nabongo, was perhaps the most famous among recent generations of Kenyans due to his role in the colonial history.

Valuable material and oral history of the Wanga Kingdom is preserved at the Nabongo Mumia Museum in Matungu in Mumias. Rapando was born around 1893 and started ruling at a tender age of 25 years when Nabongo Lutomia died.  He ruled for 18 years between 1918 and 1936, the year he died after being bitten by a wild dog.

By then, Nabongo Wambani Rapando was 12 and Makari Lutomia would hold brief until 1948 when Nabongo Wambani had completed his studies at Government African School in Kakamega and Budo Kings College, Uganda.

Nabongo Osundwa was the first to be reburied at the shrine followed by Kweyu, Sakwa and Lutomia in that order.  Sakwa is said to have been the most fierce and shrewd amongst them all.

The kingdom split in the 18th century when ailing Nabongo Osundwa summoned his two sons, Kweyu and Wamukoya and gave the former a spear that symbolised who was the chosen heir and the rope to the latter, to mean he was to play second fiddle to his brother, says King Wambani Rapando. 

When Osundwa died, Wamukoya, with support from some elders, decided to oppose his brother and elders felt he had betrayed their fallen Nabongo.

He then secretly plotted to steal the remains of his father. However, Kweyu’s warriors were on high alert and waylaid Wamukoya and his faction as they were transporting the remains to the current Matungu shrine. A war ensued and Kweyu’s forces carried the day.

However, Wamukoya was allowed to attend reburial of his father’s remains at Shimuli Shrine and was sent away five days later. That is how the kingdom split: Wanga Mukulu under Nabongo Kweyu and North Wanga under Nabongo Wamukoya.

Wamukoya was succeeded by his son Shiundu who handed the mantle to Nabongo Mumia. Nabongo Mumia would later collaborate with the British colonisers and emerge as a famous king ruling a vast area.

Traditional brew

Kweyu was succeeded by Sakwa known for his habit of sitting on the laps of his wife as another one held his straw while he sipped traditional brew, says Mzee Orata.

When Joseph Thompson and Carl Peters visited the kingdom for the first time in about 1884 and hoisted a flag on Nabongo Kweyu’s farm, King Sakwa who was in charge then lowered the flag, burnt it and chased the visitors away. However, the white men were welcomed by Nabongo Mumia, says Mzee Orata.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the home of the just installed Nabongo Wambani Rapando accompanied by then President Daniel arap Moi.

“Thatcher was so impressed and it’s after her visit I was shocked to learn the colonisers regarded me a king,” says Wambani Rapando.

A majority of the five MPs who have served Mumias hailed from Wanga Mukulu. They are; John Owashika (1970 – 1973), Francis Obongita (1973-1979), Ellon Wameyo, who was re-elected for four consecutive terms, Wycliffe Osundwa and Benjamin Washiali, the current MP.

“An MP is elected leader, and he must be acceptable to the majority,” said Mr Osundwa who attended coronation ceremony for King Wambani Rapando.

The biggest challenge facing the new king is the struggle to reunite the two kingdoms. The two kingdoms have challenged each other’s legitimacy with the North under Peter Mumia II.

“The true and legitimate kingdom belongs to us,” said Orata. 

In a telephone interview, Mumia II told Lifestyle that he was the undisputed King of Wanga.

According to the elders, Prime Minister Raila Odinga falls in the line of Nabongo Sakwa, son to Nabongo Kweyu who was chosen by Nabongo Osundwa as his heir and not Wamukoya who rebelled and went to the North instead.