Mijikenda elders at the Coast have accused Deputy President William Ruto of trying to get blessings from the Kaya elders through the back door.
This was after Ruto secretly met 18 supposed Kaya elders on October 17 at English Point Marina in Mombasa.
The elders who met Ruto, however denied that they had gone to bless him or endorse former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar as their preferred governor in 2022 as widely speculated.
On Monday, Tsuma Nzai, the chief coordinator of all Kaya elders at the Coast, told the Star the meeting has caused a lot of consternation among the Kaya elders.
“There were only two genuine Kaya elders at the meeting and they came from Kaya Fungo in Giriama,” Nzai said on phone.
All the 16 others were people picked from villages, he said.
“And the thought that they claimed to be representing Kaya elders is what miffed the elders,” Nzai said.
Mijikenda Kaya Elders Association chairman Mwinyi Mwalimu Bwisho on Monday criticised Ruto, saying he did not follow protocol to engage with Kaya elders, which he said was disrespectful to them.
“We are here to demand respect. Those wakuu who want power and leadership who are coronated in shops must stop it,” Bwisho said.
“The proper way is to get into Kayas. But they don’t look for the real elders. They look for fake ones.”
“After that, they run around claiming they have been endorsed and given traditional Kaya clothes to wear.”
He likened Ruto’s action to a football striker who shoots off target.
On Monday, Nzai said most politicians are duped into thinking they get blessings from the Mijikenda community when they engage these "fake elders".
However, he noted that some leaders deliberately exploit elderly people from the Mijikenda community, giving them handouts and claim to be Kaya elders so they can hoodwink their supporters.
The Mijikenda community at the Coast is a huge constituency with over 600,000 votes.
Nzai said, according to the Mijikenda culture, anyone seeking blessings from the Kaya elders must step into the Kaya.
Kayas are sacred forests of the Mijikenda people and are considered to be intrinsic sources of ritual power and the origin of cultural identity.
They are also places of prayer for members of the Mijikenda community.
“In the Kaya, they will have some things explained to them by the elders so that if need be, the rituals to bless them takes place,” Nzai said.
A meeting of the Kaya elders was held at the Malindi District Cultural Centre the day after Ruto met the 18 supposed Kaya elders and resolved to start a programme to sensitise leaders, especially from other communities, about the Kaya elders.
Nzai said the problem is people do not know the Kaya elders and any elderly person dressed in traditional Mijikenda regalia is taken to be a Kaya elder.
“That is why we are on a campaign to ensure that the real Kaya elders are known,” the coordinator said.
“Sometimes people, including drunkards and traditional song dancers, are just picked from the villages and branded kaya elders.
“We now want to explain who a kaya elder is, and if the title kaya elder is used, on what ground is it used?” Nzai said.
He noted that, though he is recognised as a Kaya elder, he is yet to reach the upper echelons of the title and therefore cannot perform certain functions like blessing people.
“There are certain areas in the Kayas that I am not even allowed to step into,” he said.
He noted that the real Kaya elders cannot come out of the Kayas and permanently live in them.
They only send their most trusted representatives to meet leaders in places outside the Kayas, he said.
That is why those who seek genuine blessings from Kaya elders must visit the Kayas.
“Kaya elders are not even allowed to wear trousers or even underpants,” he said.
In the Kayas, anyone who seeks blessings from the Kaya elders will have their left ear held and they have to kneel down.
Their origin has to be known, including the parents, where the blessing seeker comes from and the community they come from.
They must also declare they are willing to join and be part of the Mijikenda community and follow the traditions of the community.
They will then be presented with the several clans from the community from which they will have to choose a clan for a name to be given to them.
The blessing seeker will then be given an elder from the clan he chooses who will act as their father.
“That is when they are given the blessing from that clan. It is a process,” Nzai said.
He said the blessing of the politicians commonly seen are just public relations exercises.
“People only want the support of the community and that is why they claim they have been endorsed or blessed by the community.”
In two months’ time, he said, the Kaya elders will start a process through which they will guard their traditional ways from defilement by politicians.
The process, which he said will have political consequences, will see the Kaya elders denounce all political parties from outside the Coast region.
They will then seek a Coast-based national political party that they will rally behind and direct their people towards.
“The Kaya elders will have a big influence and any son of theirs that they endorse will automatically become a leader,” Nzai said.
Nzai said being in political parties based in areas outside the Coast region has only brought problems to the region.
“Because whenever leaders are elected through those parties, they get new fathers and forget the people who elected them."
He said Kaya elders began questioning the ‘outsider’ parties when Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa broke ranks with ODM and started promoting other parties.