with a mismanaged and imbalanced environment. According to Shanyisa
Khasiani, “The first causalities of environmental degradation are women whose
tasks involve them in continuous interaction with natural resources.”31
However, her ability to control the utilization of resources was consistently
interrupted during the colonial period. The colonist had their own economic
strategies and interests. But women especially possessed the knowledge of
managing the land based on traditional systems:
“Women in precolonial Kenya possessed an intricate and scientifically sound
knowledge to manage their environment competently. Within the limits of
their defined rights of access and utilization, women managed to maintain a
workable balance between drawing sustenance from the land and allowing for
the regeneration of it. Neither cultivation nor grazing was haphazard. Soil
types, crop suitability and climatic regimes were all carefully balanced toward
possible maximization of production and maintenance of the ecological
system.”32
Like many highly regarded events prior to colonialism, it was primarily the
role of men to perform the purification ceremonies in the society; it was usually
invoked by male elders. However, the shift of women into the role of purification
during the colonial period after WWII was natural based on their extensive
understanding of the fragile environment and traditions. Some records suggest
that purification has a gendered nature as it relates to water and rainfall. Kavyu
provides a story of rain spirits called, Lala and Kathambi.33 The spirits are given
female names and take on feminine forms:
“According to traditions Mwiitu wa Iala was a woman who had migrated from
an unknown place with prophetic power, which made people think that she
could have got her power from Iala...It is believed that from his home spirit
3' Shanyisa Anota Khasiani, Groundwork, African Women as Environmental Managers, (Nairobi: ACTS
Press, 1992), 1.
32 Khasiani, Groundwork, African Women, 8
33 Kavyu, Rain Making and Prophecy, 3. Other names include Mwiitu wa Iala (Lala’s Daughter) Mwiitu wa
kuu kumwe (one legged woman) or Ngai ya Mubua (god of rain).
200
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