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Do You Know the meaning of that name?




 I have been employed in Kitengela for some two weeks now. The sand in Kitengela is stifling sometimes and I have yet to make or bump into old friends and I think it is too soon to open up to my new office colleagues. It is Saturday afternoon, I stroll around Kitengela, it is still suffocating. There is no air in Kite only the sizzling smell of Nyama Choma is in the air.

Naturally, my feet lead me to a popular bar at the centre of the town overlooking the Namanga Highway. I spot an empty seat at the counter and perch myself at the Sina taabu seat. Next to me is a well looking elderly man, he is stall, bespectacled, neat haircut and a moustache. I nod at him as I pull a chair; He looks at me and smiles. A beer later he looks up at me and smiles again and speaks:

“How is Kite taking you?” He casually asks.

“How did you know I am new in the town?” I ask Surprised.

He looks at me, winks and murmurs “ Mgeni Kuku Mweupe”.

I love Irish potato; It is called Waru in the local Kikuyu dialect. I order two plates, one for him and one for me. He takes a rain check. It is soon brought, and as I tuck it in, my new friend asks loudly...

“You know where the name Waru came from?”

 I had no answer He continues “You see when the Mzungu came he thought of introducing this new crop the Irish Potato and as he was instructing the natives in planting it he insisted that it had to be planted a single one per hole and therefore the instructional wordings from the typical Mzungu Nasal drawl were: “One here...one here...One here... To the natives mind the words sounded like Waru...Waru...Waru... and the name stuck”.

 I laughed.

 He continued

“You have been to Thogoto?” Thogoto is a small missionary centre a few kilometres west of Nairobi.

“ Of course “

I answer back.

“You know the origin of the name?” I hesitated and before I could answer he tells me: “The missionary who first settled there was from Scotland and was named pastor Scott. He built the theological college there. Thogoto therefore is a corruption of Scott just as Kirigiti is a corruption of Cricket...a gentleman’s game the British introduced to all their colonies. He smiled. “Just like the 4 o’clock tea so common in all member’s clubs”.

He was not finished.

“You know the meaning of Dagoreti corner? ...It means the great corner...that wide swerve as you come from Ngo’ng as you head to town”

He continued:

 “ I suppose you have been to Embakasi?”,I nod

 “I always pass there heading here” I answer back.

“It was the first Airport in the country and had a big notice board written “Embarkings” and the name stuck. You know, the airport was built partly by the Mau Mau prisoners.

 Mau Mau was the name of the Kenya’s freedom fighters in the early fifties.

“I suppose you know the meaning of the name Mau Mau?”

“Easy” I replied:

 “The first words for Mzungu aende Ulaya, Mwafrika abaki Kenya”.

 “ Naaa!” He castigated me “The freedom fighters partook an oath called the Muma, the British commander could not fully vocalize the words Muma.... you try vocalizing Muma that in a British military drawl, It ends up as Mau Mau.”

He smiled indolently. I was now on my fifth beer and was feeling high or aire as the millenials say. I ordered two beers for him as I begged to leave. With good grace he allowed me to leave, but called out as I drained the last swallow. “ One last one” He called out “I Suppose you think you know the origins of the name of this town Kitengela?”

 “Well….I stuttered “ Nairobi’s Bedroom?”

“Wrong!” He replied “the now Kitengela town was originally known as Noonkopir which in the Maa dialect means a place of many flying birds” I had stood up and just wanting to chide him asked: “I suppose you think you know the meaning of Ng’ong, referring to the small town 30 km west of Kitengela shadowed by a range of hills named after the town.

 He brightened up.

” Ngong is an Anglicization of a Maasai phrase Enkongui Emunyin...Meaning a stream next to a mountain. You know if you have been keen to look, Ngo’ng hills is shaped like the knuckles of a man- legend has it – It was formed when a giant who had tripped over Mount Kilimanjaro pressed a fist into the ground to right himself up” He laughed loudly.

 “It means therefore that if he had tripped and fell across Kenya, his shaft must have made a huge hole somewhere.....I wonder where?” With that He burst out laughing. I laughed too.

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