Kenya: Ominous Oaths

When a black Kenyan these days says, “I’m going to Gatundu for a cup of tea,” his friends know that it may be a cover-up for something else. Gatundu is the residence of Kenya’s President Jomo Kenyatta, and “tea drinking” is really oath swearing. Unlike the tribesmen who swore secret oaths to join the Mau Mau rebellion against foreigners in the 1950s, Kikuyu by the thousands are swearing oaths against fellow Kenyans in the President’s backyard.

This ominous new outbreak of tribal tension was set off by last month’s assassination of Tom Mboya, who was the Minister of Economic Planning and Development in the predominantly Kikuyu government. Mboya was a member of the Luo tribe, a rival of the Kikuyu. The arrested suspect is a Kikuyu. In addition to reacting to possible trouble with the Luo, the Kikuyu are also closing ranks in preparation for a national election within the next eight months.

Vast Scale. The Kikuyu, according to one participant, strip naked, then hold hands in a circle around a darkened hut and chant an oath before entering it. Inside the hut they eat soil and swear to follow the oath. “The government of Kenya is under Kikuyu leadership, and this must be maintained,” goes the pledge. “If any tribe tries to set itself up against the Kikuyu, we must fight them in the same way that we died fighting the British settlers. No uncircumcised leaders [for example, the Luo] will be allowed to compete with the Kikuyu. You shall not vote for any party not led by the Kikuyu. If you reveal this oath, may this oath kill you.”

The vast scale of the Kikuyu activity got into the headlines in Kenya last week with the accidental crash of three trucks. All were jampacked with Kikuyu, and survivors said that they were traveling to or from Kenyatta’s home. Thirteen passengers were killed, 105 injured. The presence of so many Kikuyu on the road to the President’s house raised suspicions that the tribe was engaged in a clandestine operation. In Parliament, members of Leader Oginga Odinga’s opposition party charged that the Kikuyu were engaged in oath taking on the grounds of the President’s residence. When a government spokesman denied such ceremonies, claiming that they were simple expressions of loyalty to Kenyatta, there were cries of “Shame! Shame!”

The Kikuyu, so the story went, had asked Kenyatta, who is a member of the tribe, to allow mass oath taking. Outsiders do not know Kenyatta’s response, but there is no doubt that his yard has become the scene of mass oath ceremonies. Many non-Kikuyu citizens fear that Kenyatta, the founder of the country, has been pressured into allowing tribal factionalism at the expense of national unity and his own policy of pulling the tribes together.