The name is absent

individuals in questionable judicial matters.¹⁸ The actual application of the kithito
was a serious undertaking because guilt meant the death of the oather and
sometimes the oathers’ family. Dundas outlined the oathing process stating that
it involved both parties sequentially, swearing before and facing the kithito object
while standing on two out of seven (to a max of eleven) stones and holding a
twig.¹⁹ While explaining the event, the oather taps the kithito and completes the
oath with three taps and the following statement: “Listen well, if I tell a lie let the
Kithito eat me.”²⁰ The heart of the power of this oath lies in the vengeance
against false oathers. Even today in Kenya the kithitu oath is viewed and
remembered as a serious matter with deadly consequences.²¹

Similarly, in a District Commissioner Report on September 2, 1910, by
James B. Ainsworth, the district commissioners of Kutui, there were documented
accounts of the use and application of the kithito and the oath.²² In this report the
Commissioner describes the kithito as:

“an article about 8 inches long by 2 inches in diameter made up as follows:
Part an Wkamba grain bag, one small twig of the Mvuavoi tree, 7 twigs of the
Mguguma tree, all kinds of grain food, 2 horns from a goat, cow dung and
butter mixed together, the whole of the top is sealed by Hyena dung and two
spots of red earth dabbed on. The Kithito is bound together by the bark of the
Msensiili."

Ainsworth’s description of the Kithito varies from the pictorial account provided by
ethnographer Gerhard Lindblom in his work written in 1920. However, the overall
components and structure of the kithitu appear consistent in both accounts as a

¹⁸ The Kithito is defined as an article with great power, and if a man falsely swears, he can expect death.
See Dundas, “History of Kitui,” 511-512.

¹⁹ Dundas, “History of Kitui,” 511.

²⁰ Dundas, “History of Kitui,” 511.

²¹ Interview, P. Matheke, June 2009, Kitui, Kenya.

²² Report from District Commissioners Office Kutui, written by James B. Ainsworth. KNA Syracuse
Collection, Machakos Annual Report, 1909, ρ. 16.

68

<<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   >>

More intriguing information